Breaking the Cycle
by Junkyosha
Summary: At the end of their duel, instead of simply saying goodbye, Itachi reveals everything to Sasuke to prevent him from falling into Tobi's hands. Knowing all the truth thoroughly, the young ninja decides to protect the village and returns home with the intention to follow his brother's footsteps as the true Kage. Him and his old friends reunited, they begin an entirely new journey...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N. Hello, guys! First of all, a few warnings.**

**This is planned to be a long story, and a huge part of it is intended to be post-Shippuuden. Which means that contrary to canon, we won't be stuck in the war arc for all eternity (if the war happens at all.)**

**The main pairings are already kinda decided (SasuHina, NaruSaku, InoShika), but you guys may still affect our choices via reviews!  
****"Our" means that we are two different authors working together to create something good and enjoyable!**

**Sasuke won't be a cliche douchebag here; our version of him is inspired by Sasuke Shinden, the post-Shippuuden canon novel.**

**The first chapter is basically a prologue that will set up the necessary changes to the canon story, it's a starting point. Hope you guys enjoy it! Let us know what you think.**

**Jun & Whiskycat  
**

* * *

**Chapter 1. Truth**

"Your eyes belong to me now."

This was it. He had lost. His ultimate jutsu Kirin – the lightning dragon – hadn't killed Itachi, and this bizarre ghostly thing, Susanoo, was still covering his brother's entire body. Even though the ninja's eyes had paled and were likely almost blind now; even though his Sharingan was now deactivated…

So was Sasuke's.

"I'll take them slowly… I want to savour this," said Itachi and panted.

Sasuke felt shivers going down his spine. Was this really going to end this way? But then…

"Gh…!" Itachi fell on his knees and covered his mouth in a fit of coughing. Blood was slowly flowing through his fingers, dripping on the ground. The phantom chakra construct surrounding him became more transparent, some of it partly disappearing completely.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and took out a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it, throwing it at his brother. A bright flash of explosion blinded him for a moment, shortly revealing the somewhat restored Susanoo holding its shield in front of staggering Itachi who was slowly standing up from the ground. He began to approach him again, one of his eyes was closed now.

"Damn you!" Sasuke yelled, unwrapping a scroll and sending a whole barrage of explosives in Itachi's direction this time. Another chain of loud blasts echoed across the place… and yet there was still no visible effect.

The younger brother backed off, grabbing the hilt of his sword with his shaking hand.

"My eyes… my…," murmured his nemesis, remorselessly closing in on him.

"DIE!" cried out Sasuke, jumping at him with the sword directed at his head. The chakra shield then repelled him, sending the ninja back on the ground like a ragdoll, making him fall hard on his back.

He then raised his head, ignoring the pain and gathering the last bits of energy he had. Itachi was now just a couple of feet away from him, his blood-stained hand reaching out towards him…

Sasuke quickly got up, taking another step back and, to his horror, feeling the cold concrete pressing against his back.

_A wall...!_

There was no way back! And the hand was already inches away from his face…!

And then it happened. Something so indescribably surreal, something he absolutely hadn't seen coming. Something absolutely impossible, unfathomable…

Itachi's fingers poked his forehead lightly, and then the world went completely dark.

Sasuke blinked, looking around himself in panic. _Genjutsu…!_

He was out of chakra. There was no way to counter it… It was over. He was about to die.

"Sasuke… You won't die, and this isn't over."

He flinched, looking at a perfectly healthy figure of his brother standing in front of him.

"What the fuck is this?!" growled the young ninja, feeling unable to move. "A final mockery? Just finish me off and be done with it, damn it!"

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it many years ago when you were just as defenceless."

Sasuke frowned, feeling quite dumbfounded. Was that some kind of a game…? Itachi had a point, though. He could've killed him long ago...

"So? What of it?" he spat, feeling his hatred for this man intensifying.

"Things are… not going as planned…," Itachi panted again – apparently, he didn't have enough chakra to even be able to control his own illusion properly. Then why was he wasting his chakra on it? "We're being watched… By Madara's underlings. I am about to die… and then they will take you."

_Madara's…?_Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he gritted his teeth.

"If you're about to die, then why the fuck do you care what's gonna happen next?!"

Itachi paused, eyeing him for a few seconds.

"I wasn't planning to do this, but… He will most likely try to manipulate you. I can't let it happen. I'll show you all the truth… By myself…"

For a brief moment, Sasuke forgot to breathe. _The truth_? His brother had just claimed that he was dying… If this was no bluff – and the man had no reason to bluff either way from what it looked like – could it be that he was about to reveal something… about that day? Or...

"I'll show you…"

The world around them changed, turning into the familiar place not too far away from the Uchiha compound.

This was… Itachi's memory?!

"Itachi… it's about time. Thank you for coming."

Sasuke flinched, turning around and staring at the ghost – no, a memory of the long-deceased man. Uchiha Shisui...!

**–oWo–**

"Itachi lost…?" White Zetsu said in disbelief meanwhile, staring at the two bodies lying on the ground. "He… passed away?"

"_**Can't you see?**_" barked his black half, although looking just as stunned as well.

"Sasuke won… I can't even believe it… It doesn't make any sense…"

"_**How so?**_"

"Itachi should've been much stronger than this. He wasn't moving or attacking normally, and you even said something was off about him, remember?"

"_**True… He was hit by the attacks he should've easily dodged. And kept coughing blood all throughout the fight. Maybe he'd already been badly wounded before Sasuke even arrived?"**_

"From overusing Sharingan, you mean?"

"_**No, not necessarily…**_"

They kept staring at the bodies for a while.

"He was so close to taking Sasuke's eyes too…"

"_**Something is wrong. Itachi isn't alive… But, I can still sense his chakra's presence**_."

"What do you mean?!"

"_**Nevermind that. We must inform him now. Let's go**_."

**–oWo–**

"I see… So you've aligned with the other side?" asked their father impassively, sitting on his knees right next to their mother, turned away from Itachi.

"Father, mother… I am–"

"We know, Itachi," replied Mikoto meekly.

"Itachi, just promise me this. My last wish." Sasuke watched his brother flinch, raising his head in attention. "Take care of Sasuke."  
There was a moment of silence in which tears began to roll down Itachi's face.

"I will." His hands holding a sword began to tremble.

"Do not fear," said Fugaku. "This is the path you have chosen. Compared to yours, our pain will be over in an instant. Even if our philosophies differ, I am proud of you." Itachi's whole body began to shake as he sobbed silently, listening to the man's last words. "You are truly a kind child…"

Sasuke wanted to scream as he saw the quick swing of the blade ending the lives of his parents. He had seen this before, back when Itachi had tortured him with his Tsukuyomi, but this time… This time this was a thousand times more painful, having seen the entire premise of what was happening.

All these years of hatred… all these years of him looking for revenge… for the brother who had passed through hell in order to save his – Sasuke's – life?

"The remains of my chakra I put in your body… are fading…"

Sasuke couldn't even blink, still unable to overcome the shock caused by what he had just seen when everything disappeared again, leaving just the two of them standing in the darkness.

"I feel like I'm slowly losing consciousness… Before saying goodbye, I wanted to show you all the truth before someone else… Danzo, or Madara… would try to give you their versions… After all, there is no need to lie anymore. I'm already dead…"

Finally overcoming his numbness and shock, Sasuke slowly turned his head to face Itachi's half-transparent figure once more, looking completely lost and demolished by the dreadful realization.

"I always lied to you, telling you to forgive me. I always kept you far away, with my own hands… I didn't want… to involve you… But now I think that maybe _you _would have been able to change father, mother, and the whole clan… If I had faced you from the start, tried to see things from your point of view and talked with you without about the truth as it is… But I failed, and no matter what I say now it won't reach you. And yet I'm going to say what I really think…" He smiled, making Sasuke's heart pound so fast that he thought it would tear apart.

Was this all even real…? How could this be real...? How?

"Please, if you can… protect the village. Restore the Uchiha name. Beware of Madara and Danzo... And no matter what you do from now on…," the fading phantom smiled warmly, touching Sasuke's temple one final time and then hugging his nape. "I will love you forever."

Sasuke's eyelids slowly opened. He stared at the unfamiliar ceiling of some dimly-lit room, seemingly underground… Where on earth was he?

"I gave you some first aid."

He flinched, turning to the left and staring into the darkness of the passage from where he could hear the unfamiliar voice.

"You won."

Had he, really…? His brother… was dead… he had killed him himself… but now, now that he knew the truth… Could he honestly call it a victory?

"It was very close, though. You're still badly wounded. You shouldn't be so reckless with your life."

The owner of the voice stepped out of the shadows, revealing the masked figure with a short dark hair, its shade identical to his own.

"We've met once before… as enemies. Don't worry about what happened with Deidara. I'm no longer your foe."

Sasuke didn't say anything, pretending not to care but, in truth, studying the person attentively.

"I brought you here to tell you something important."

The Uchiha looked away.

"Not interested, huh? Maybe you'll pay more attention if I say it like this...? It's about Itachi Uchiha."

Sasuke closed his eyes and winced, glancing at the figure then.

"There we go… You know so much about your brother, and at the same time, you know nothing."

Sasuke's gaze paused on him as he reached to his mask, slowly removing it.

"Why don't I start by introducing myself… Like you, I'm a living, breathing Uchiha. And the man who knows the truth about Itachi."

His eye… It was a Sharingan!

Sasuke's own dojutsu activated, but nothing further happened. The man took his orange mask off, revealing a rather young face, although the right half of it was badly scarred.

"My name is Madara."

Madara? Was this the person Itachi had told him about… or rather, had warned him about? Who could've known their encounter would come so soon? Still, maybe it wasn't wise to reveal the fact that he already knew about him…

"Uchiha Madara…? Sure… You keep screwing with me and I'll kill you!" said Sasuke indifferently, his voice sounding disgustingly weak.

The person chuckled.

"I see talking to you will be difficult. I guess I understand. Some weirdo takes you in and starts telling all these shocking things… But I assure you, I speak the truth. You asked Itachi yourself about the person who helped him that night."

So it was him after all. How did he know about the details of his conversation with Itachi, though? Was Madara about to try to manipulate him? That seemed like exactly what Itachi was afraid of… But then again, could he really even trust Itachi…? This was all far too overwhelming to comprehend at once...

"I know everything there is to know about Itachi. Of course, he died without realizing just how much…"

"Stop it… I don't care. Leave me alone and never come back to me again!" Sasuke growled, almost pleading genuinely. He couldn't take any of it anymore. He needed time… He needed to think. Yes, a lot of time…

"No, I think you need – you have to question me. It's your mission… your duty!"

Sasuke gripped his blanket, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth.

"You need to know about him… The man who risked everything to protect the shinobi world… Konoha… And most of all, his little brother."

The boy felt frozen then. Because that was the moment when he finally believed all he had just seen in the memories of his brother.

It was all true… It had to be.

He wasn't sure what time or even what day was that as he stood on the shore of the sea, staring at the horizon. His wounds were fully healed now, and he was wearing a new outfit – the clothes he had borrowed from Madara's hideout. A light-grey shirt with his clan's crest on its back, and a couple more things… But, none of it really mattered to him right now. He was still trying to accept all the horrible truth that had been revealed to him...

_To protect peace in Konoha, and most importantly, Sasuke Uchiha, yourself… He traded his pride for disgrace… And your love for your hatred. And even still, Itachi died with a smile on his face. He left the name 'Uchiha' to you and deceived you all the way to the end…  
_  
_No… Not to the end,_ he thought as if replying to Madara who, of course, couldn't read his thoughts.

_Protect the village. Restore the Uchiha name. Beware of Madara…  
_  
These were his brother's final wishes. Could he trust everything Madara had told him? No… He still had to hear the other side of this story. He needed to get the full picture before he would make his decision…

Whether to protect the village or destroy it.

"I'm going to Konoha," he suddenly said, feeling something in his eyes changing. The pain he was feeling was immeasurable… But at the same time, his mind was surprisingly clear. He was supposed to be raging now, to be embracing his hatred… Yet there was nothing but pain and cold resolve in his heart.

"Konoha, huh?" muttered Madara sitting on the rock behind his back as the rest of his team stared at him worriedly.

"Yes. I'm planning to destroy it…," he paused, turning around and looking at his only living relative. The man was clearly amused by his words, it was notable even in spite of him wearing a mask… Was this what Madara wanted him to do? "But first, I need to retrieve some things."

"Fine. I can take you there at once…"

"No. I'm going alone. I need some time to think about everything…" Their eyes met for a while, but then Madara quickly yielded, smirking almost playfully behind his mask.

"Fine. That's understandable."

The younger Uchiha jumped off the rock, striding towards the hideout.

"I'll be back soon."

He wasn't lying. He was indeed planning to return… just as soon as he would talk to the Hokage who, as he now knew, happened to be the last descendant of those who had supposedly been the foes of his clan.

The one named Senju Tsunade.

* * *

**A/N Please let us know what you think! We'll post chapter 2 shortly! :3**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N. Thanks for subscribing! OwO Please let us know what you think, guys! Here's a new chapter for yall :3  
**

* * *

**Chapter 2. Welcome Home**

The sun had just started to set, but that didn't stop the patrons of the barbeque house from continuing to have a good time. Inside it was pretty noisy and hot. The amazing smell was a mixture of all kinds of meat and spices, and alcohol of course. One of the corner tables was occupied by a few members of the Konoha 11. Some of them were eating and drinking; some were just staring blankly either at the ceiling or the walls; some were casually chatting.

"So what's your plan for the next few days? It seems we've all got a week-long holiday, eh..." said Kiba and downed a glass of some strong liquid that had him gasping for a second afterwards. "To clear our heads, as they said… or whatever."

He was speaking with Shikamaru who was sitting on the opposite side of the table, but everyone else heard the question too and started thinking about it as well. The young Nara didn't reply immediately, only thinking that all of this was just troublesome, and wishing he could be elsewhere right now. He sighed and shrugged.

"I'll try to speak with the Hokage about it, but I think my father will interfere with that anyway. We're all thinking the same," he looked up from his glass to meet Kiba's slightly drunken gaze. "We all want to continue the mission, some more than others. But you were the one who confirmed that it would be impossible to find him under that rain. Besides, you said it yourself – he disappeared. The fact that he still hasn't returned on his own accord means that he..." Shikamaru glanced at the side of the table where Naruto was sitting. The blond boy lazily kept turning a piece of meat on the platter from one side to another, deep in thought. Clearly, he wasn't listening to his teammates' conversation.

"Yeah, that's right. There's nothing we can do at the moment so no point to run around in the dark. We should definitely take this time to chill and relax," said Kiba. Others at the table – Shino, Hinata, Neji, Lee, Tenten, Ino and even Sakura – nodded in agreement. The rose-haired kunoichi looked at Naruto, noticing that he still hadn't touched his food. The girl's expression instantly changed to a worried one, but before she could say anything, a few glasses dropped on the floor at the other table, startling everybody. Naruto flinched slightly, shook his head and then finally started to clean up his platter.

"I definitely think we should all at least try to find out what we should do next. I'm not saying we need to go out there immediately, but Hokage-sama and others must have some thoughts about the next step. Honestly, this nukenin business has stretched out for too long…," said Neji, crossing his arms on his chest and frowning. Everyone looked at him, understanding what he was trying to say.

"H-He hasn't been labelled a nukenin yet, Neji-nii-san," stuttered Hinata after throwing a careful glance at Naruto who was clearly irritated by the ninja's words.

"She's right, Neji!" said Lee, clenching his bandaged fists. "We shouldn't talk about our comrade like that!"

"Yes, that's true," agreed his teammate. "But, for how long will it remain this way? If he doesn't want to return, nobody can force him, as much as I want it to be the other way around–"

None of them paid any attention to the bell ringing at the entrance of the crowded eatery as a cloaked figure slowly walked in, bypassing a few of other customers and then pausing for a second in the middle of the hall. The figure's hooded head then turned in their direction, but before any of them could possibly notice it, the person quickly walked to the bar counter and settled down there.

"If Sasuke isn't back yet, then he must have a reason not to come," finally muttered Naruto darkly, still not looking up from his plate. "Maybe we shouldn't chase him anymore after all. Whatever he's up to now… It must be important."

"You think so?" Neji glanced at him sceptically, receiving a heavy poke on the ribs from Tenten.

"I–I think N-Naruto-kun is right," said Hinata, lowering her eyes timidly.

"Of course, _you_ would think that!" Kiba laughed, making the girl blush under the other few smirks and grins that followed.

"W-Well… I just think that – if Sasuke-san has fulfilled his goal – if he truly killed his b-brother – there must be s-something that – or m-maybe someone who prevented him from going back…," she mused, lowering her voice sheepishly by the end of the sentence.

The cloaked person moved a tad, slightly turning his head to the right and revealing the neck-long strands of raven-black hair.

"Hey, that's actually quite insightful, Hinata-chan!" exclaimed Sakura, even raising up on her spot a bit in excitement. "What if somebody's actually holding him? Someone like… Akatsuki?"

Shikamaru frowned, biting on a toothpick. That didn't sound good at all. On the contrary, it would be extremely bad for the Uchiha. The worst part of it was that it didn't sound too far-fetched given that his teacher Orochimaru had once been a member of the organization, as well as his brother. Assuming it was true, whether they were holding him against his will, or if he decided to join them for some reason... Either way, it would mean that they couldn't really waste any more time relaxing in Konoha.

The jōnin glanced at Naruto, surprised to see that, judging by his suddenly frightened and paled expression, the jinchūriki came to the same conclusion.

"Sakura!" Shikamaru raised his voice a bit, just to the point so that everyone at the table looked at him. He shot another glance at Naruto who already had that determined "ready to go" face so typical for him. Baffled for a mere second, Sakura finally understood that she should've chosen her words more carefully, looking both worried and ashamed now. "We don't know his motive or circumstances. If I recall correctly, he never stated that he would return to Konoha after killing his brother, right?" The Nara glanced at Naruto and Sakura, both of whom just shook their heads reluctantly.

"I–I suppose we were kind of... selfish. Thinking that he would immediately come back to us," said Sakura frowning and lowering her jade eyes. "But, I mean… It's only because he's still dear to us; all we ever wanted was to simply be there for him if he needed us. Just like when Team 7 just started. Just like right now…," she added almost in a whisper, albeit throwing a more determined gaze back at Shikamaru. Naruto seemed to be in agreement with her, though he didn't say anything.

"That's all amazing and good, but you are forgetting that the only reason why Sasuke hasn't been officially branded nukenin is because of Hokage-sama's whim. All thanks to your close relationship with her, Naruto." Neji said. He knew exactly what he was saying, and realized that it was pretty harsh, but the ninja held no ill intent towards any of his friends or even Sasuke. He was merely stating the obvious truths whether they liked them or not. "Meaning that it's only a matter of time before it happens. She cannot stall this matter forever. Even Hiashi-sama is quite displeased with all this, and his voice has a lot of weight in the council of the village."

The atmosphere at the table became notably more gloomy. While what the Hyūga was saying was painful to hear, everyone realized that it was true.

"I understand where you're coming from, Neji. You're correct. However, you will not know this as you've only met him briefly at the chūnin exam, and never really got to know him. Although I too was never really friends with him... Hell, he was more problematic than anything considering he was the reason the rest of us were pushed so much in the academy, just to be on par with the 'genius'...," Shikamaru started his usual kind of ranting which relaxed the atmosphere a bit. Kiba grinned, remembering their antics during the academy years. "But, Sasuke is the type of person who wouldn't do something on a whim or without giving it a lot of thought. I'm sure of this much. We shouldn't be looking to hasten the nukenin issue; instead, we should be trying to find a way to bring a Konoha shinobi, our comrade, back home. He hasn't forsaken the village until proven otherwise, and the village is still waiting for him."

"Damn, right!" exclaimed Lee, raising a thumb.

"Well said, man!" Kiba smiled, raising his glass.

"I–I agree," Hinata nodded, looking at her cousin who still looked more bothered rather than inspired like the rest of them. "S-Sasuke-san must have his reasons not to go home. It is s-still his home, though. As long as h-he wants it to be this way."

"Agreed!"

"Yep!"

Everyone then looked at the only two jōnin at their table who stared at each other quietly, as if fighting mentally. Shikamaru was a lazy shinobi who hated drama, but when the time demanded it he could always find the right words to reach his friends. Even Naruto finally smiled, obviously sharing the same point of view as most of them. And the rest didn't object either…

Neji just sighed and looked away, while Ino gave Shikamaru a suspicious look. He caught her gaze, and on his face, one could instantly notice uncovered irritation. He knew she was teasing him in her mind. She knew he understood this as well. The man leaned on the back of the bench and started pouring sake into his glass.  
The cloaked figure none of them had noticed suddenly got up, leaving a half-empty cup of tea on the bar counter and almost storming towards the exit. On its way, the person was moving so recklessly that he accidentally knocked down a waiter who yelled something indignantly, but the dark-haired young man never listened. In truth, he wasn't noticing anything around him right now. Of course, he didn't know that the white-eyed ninja who was sitting a couple of yards away from Naruto, having noticed the strange movement, instantly activated his Byakugan and was now staring right at him…

Frankly, none of it mattered to Sasuke right now. Although he hadn't been sure what to do until now, the conversation he had just inadvertently overheard… No, he couldn't honestly say that it changed everything or even anything at all. However, some part of him – something very deep inside, in the сhasms of his wounded heart he usually preferred to keep forsaken – it had twitched. He suddenly realized that he wasn't completely alone. Or rather, he didn't _have_ to be alone. He could see that this village, this thing that had once been so precious to his late brother – it was really something more than he had always viewed it. These people who barely knew him… They still wanted to give him solace. Comfort. Home. And although the reasons behind that were unfathomable to him for now, the Uchiha finally realized what he had to do.

He was going to protect this village, just like Itachi had asked him to. Exactly like his brother had always done himself…

The ninja took off his hood and jumped on top of the nearest building, rushing towards the Hokage's office.

"N-Neji-nii-san, are you alright?" asked Hinata, touching the other Hyūga's sleeve perplexedly as she noticed him having suddenly activated his Byakugan.

Neji stared at the cloaked man right until he left the building. He continued to look at the closed door for a while, not really hearing his cousin's call as he was too stunned by the realization of the person's identity. He finally snapped out of it when Hinata pulled on his arm a little bit harder.

"Huh? Oh... Yes." He de-activated Byakugan, and gave Hinata a reassuring look. "I'm alright, Hinata-sama. Don't worry about it." It seemed that his cousin didn't really believe him, but decided not to push it. The conversation at the table changed to something trivial. Ino was bugging Shikamaru, in turn, he was trying hard to ignore her. Kiba slowly kept drinking more and more. Sakura and Naruto were having a chat about the possibilities of how and when Sasuke might return. Rock Lee was desperately trying to be a part of every conversation at the same time, failing at all of them. Tenten was just quietly finishing her dish, listening to them all.

"Shikamaru, Naruto… and Shino. May I have a word with you? Outside." Said Neji as he stood up and started walking towards the exit. Everyone looked surprised by it, but most of the group quickly forgot about it and continued their previous activities. Except for Kiba who tried to tag along, but was quickly calmed down by Hinata who threw an anxious glance at Neji but said nothing, realizing that it had to be important.

The four shinobi left the barbeque building and walked into the backside alley. It was already dark outside, and although most of the leisure places around were quite full, almost no one was walking the streets, and the alley was empty as well.

"What is this about, Neji?" Naruto asked impatiently. He had finally relaxed, beginning to enjoy his meal and it seemed that Sakura was for once genuinely interested in having a nice conversation with him, even though it was about Sasuke...

"Does it have something to do with your sudden Byakugan usage?" asked Shikamaru and lit up a cigarette. Neji noted in his mind that Shikamaru had noticed it as well besides Hinata, once more silently complimenting the ninja's perception.

"Right... I wanted to let you guys know first since it's kind of a... shocking thing. Others could have overreacted… Basically, there was a strange cloaked man in the barbeque house who left abruptly, running into a waiter. Did any of you notice that?" Neji stopped, for some reason waiting for a reaction. Shino hemmed yet said nothing while Shikamaru narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the Hyūga.

Naruto, however...

"You brought us out here to share that you creepily stalked some guy?! The hell is wrong with you!" he shouted. The Hyūga's eyes widened, and his cheeks went slightly red.

"Of course not, you idiot!" the man covered his face with his palm and lowered his voice. "That man was Sasuke Uchiha. He has returned! He listened in on us, and left," he dropped this with a more serious face and tone. For a few seconds, nobody made a sound or even moved. Finally, Shikamaru took the cigarette out of his mouth, and let out a big cloud of smoke into the side. Neji looked at the three of them a bit impatiently. "Well?"

"Well, if you saw him with your Byakugan, then it's definitely him. You wouldn't make a mistake," said the other jōnin.

"Oi, Shikamaru, let's get Kiba here quickly and follow Sasuke's trail!" shouted the blonde shinobi as he started to run towards the entrance.

"Wait!" the ninja stopped as Shino grabbed his sleeve. "Let us not get all hasty. That's because Kiba is already too drunk to even stand on his two feet, he's of no help right now." Said the ninja knowingly, looking at Naruto.

"I'm sure he's still in the village so Neji can try and find him with his Byakugan. You do that now, I'll let the others know that we need to check something and that we'll get back soon," said Shikamaru and quickly went inside. Neji gave him a nod and activated Byakugan to scan the village for Sasuke's whereabouts. Naruto was impatiently pacing back and forth. Of course, he was determined not to lose his friend's trail again.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru notified the other group that something important came up, and they would come back in an hour or so. Most of them were already either too tired or too drunk to care. Only Hinata and Ino found the situation a bit too suspicious, and they looked ready to try to argue, but the jōnin gave them no chance as he quickly walked away. As Shikamaru came back out, Neji told him that Sasuke was currently heading towards the Hokage's office. And so the four shinobi immediately started to follow him.

"Hey, Shizune, it's already pretty late… Think we could take a day off tomorrow? I'm sooo tired…," Tsunade whined, stretching her back.

"Uh… I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama, but you know…" She spread her hands apologetically, nodding at the two piles of papers waiting for the Fifth on her table.

"Yeah, yeah… what a drag. I'm too young for this shit," she joked with a straight face, making her assistant giggle. "Could you at least bring us some tea? Or maybe something–"

"Tsunade-sama!"

"I mean something sweet, okay? A cake would do, my brain is shutting down." The busty kunoichi sighed, leaning on the back of her seat as the dark-haired woman smiled at her and nodded.

"Of course. I'll be right back." She walked out of the room and closed the door, leaving the Hokage alone.

The blonde closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the peaceful silence barely interrupted by the noises coming from the street outside. It was a relatively calm time for Konoha nowadays, and she couldn't help but appreciate it. However, the woman wasn't sure how long it would last. Especially now that Jiraiya...

"Your security is too weak, Fifth."

She didn't flinch, although quickly snapped out of her thought at the barely familiar voice. She could admit to herself, it was quite difficult to suppress a gasp of surprise as she met the onyx-black eyes of the teen who was giving her a gloomy deadpan, standing just a yard away from her table.

"That's because I don't need too much protection… Uchiha."

"If you say so, Senju."

Her eyes widened the tiniest bit. Nobody had called her that in a very long time…

"I take it you decided to return then. Took you long enough."

"This isn't exactly what I decided to do."

Tsunade blinked, baffled by his words and especially by his calm, almost friendly tone.

"Then what is it, pray tell?"

"I'll become Hokage."

She blinked again, this time feeling completely dumbfounded. She wasn't sure if this was some kind of a prank or not, but the woman realized that she couldn't afford to push the Uchiha away now that he had willingly returned. That's why she decided to be borderline polite as she replied,

"I see. So… shall I hand over my mantle to you then?" She instantly cursed herself inwardly for the barely hidden note of sarcasm in her voice.

But, much to her further confusion, his expression didn't change at all.

"No. The Hokage I'm talking about is nothing like you," he said firmly, making the woman suddenly want to keep quiet and listen to him as the boy was apparently willing to continue.

"Itachi Uchiha… My brother was born in the shadows and protected the village from the dark. You know how he lived, right?" He paused, noticing how she instantly paled at his words which indicated to him that she was aware of the truth. "That's the Hokage I want to become." He closed his eyes and paused, lowering his head a bit before looking back at her with an expression of cold resolve. "Moving in the shadows, caring about the village, accepting all the hatred and working for peace."

Tsunade still didn't say anything, too astonished by his words to give an adequate response and thus allowing him to continue.

"To that end, it doesn't matter how much I'll have to dirty my hands. I'll accept all the hatred born from it…" Sasuke clenched his fists, stepping towards the window and looking outside.

"I don't have a father, a mother, or a brother. I'm all alone. I can carry everything all by myself," he turned to look at her again, this time appearing perfectly calm again. "Yes, that's the Hokage I want to be."

"You sure sound very self-assured… But there are things you can't do alone, Sasuke. You should know it by now. If you decide to walk the same path as Itachi did, you'll end up…" She closed her mouth, not wanting to fully express the obvious idea.

The ninja closed his eyes again, sighing.

"Things won't always go well… Just like this village… And like our ancestors – its founders…"

_And like us… just like us, brothers…_, he thought, remembering Itachi's smiling face in his final moments.

"In the end, what this village needs is someone in Itachi's position. I'll take care of all the darkness from the past and bring things to a pure, unwritten future."

The Hokage kept looking at him thoughtfully for a while before finally uttering,

"Are you saying that you're going to let it go? Everything my predecessors did to you and your clan…"

"Yes," he said a bit too abruptly to sound entirely sincere.

"Does it mean that you also want to cut your ties with your teammates? And your friends? Just like _he_ did?"

This time he was the one to hesitate, looking away and narrowing his eyes a bit.

"Yes… If I have to."

"But what if you don't have to?"

He gave her a slightly confused look. The woman returned him a tiny grin and sighed.

"The world is not just painted white and black, Sasuke. A Hokage like me is necessary for the village, just like the one you want to become. It's exactly as you said, things don't always go well… Truth to be told, they usually get fucked up badly," she looked away, and the immense pain in her eyes didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke as she remembered Jiraiya once more. "We could still try working on it together."

"I doubt that all of our goals and methods are compatible."

"Oh, please… I can imagine what you're thinking of right now. If anything, you'd give the village huge favour if you disposed of that kind of a problem," she said as carefully as she could, praying for him to realize what exactly she was implying, unable to say it aloud. Danzō had ears everywhere after all.

"Is that an official permission?" His lips curved into the smallest grin for the first time throughout their conversation, making her smirk in return.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Alright. Fine by me." Sasuke looked out the window again, taking a few moments to think. "I think I still have to return to Akatsuki, though. He's waiting for me. I can't lose this chance to spy on them."

"Akatsuki?!" She gasped, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "_Who_ is waiting for you?"

"Their leader… I'm not sure if it's wise to discuss this here," he suddenly snapped, making Tsunade take hold of herself and calm down.

"Understood. When do you have to return to them?"

He shrugged.

"A few days. I could stay here for good, but I don't feel like it… At least not yet. Besides, I intend to keep my eye on them while I have this opportunity. The leader seems to trust me for whatever reason; he offered me to join them," he reasoned, remembering Madara's masked face. Did the man really trust him, though? The ninja had no idea, but he knew that he couldn't afford to waste a chance like that.

"Okay. I'll find you later, Sasuke, so that we can discuss it all in private. For now, you're dismissed."

"Yeah."

He jumped out the window, quickly reaching the top of the building and then continued moving in the direction of his late clan's territory.

Meanwhile, the group of his former classmates and comrades was waiting outside of the office, watching the building from different angles. As Neji explained, Sasuke just had a talk with the Fifth, but he couldn't understand what exactly they were saying.

"So it seems that Tsunade-sama knows about him too. I wonder for how long she's known about him…," commented Shikamaru. Naruto was visually displeased with this development. First Shikamaru had forbidden him storming after Sasuke, and now this shady business with Tsunade...

"Relax, Naruto. I didn't say that it's certain that she knew about him before this meeting. She honestly looked quite surprised herself," the Hyūga added. That helped relieve some tension in Naruto who still appeared pretty annoyed, but wasn't about to explode anymore.

"Right. You're saying he's headed to the old Uchiha compound territory?" asked Shikamaru. Neji gave him a nod as he was currently tracking Sasuke with his Byakugan. "Good. We'll have a chat with him over there. There shouldn't be any witnesses in those ruins except..." Shikamaru stopped himself before mentioning any possibilities of ANBU being there, specifically ANBU root being his primary concern.

"Except?" Naruto asked.

"Doesn't matter, we'll be careful. Plus I'm sure Sasuke knows his way around to avoid any unnecessary attention. Let's go." And with that the group quickly vanished, following the Uchiha closely.

They managed to finally catch up to him as he was nearing one of the broken parts in the western wall around the compound ruins. He was visibly hesitating to go further, inspecting the walls and unhurriedly walking around.

"So... How are we supposed to announce our presence exactly?" asked Neji, feeling that this situation was becoming a bit awkward. Before Shikamaru could say anything, the ever hyperactive blonde shinobi finally lost the last bits of patience and jumped out of the bushes, yelling:

"Sasuke!" Even though the Uchiha might have picked up a tail, Shikamaru could've sworn he still noticed a very slight flinch of his shoulders as the piercing voice of Sasuke's former comrade boomed throughout the territory.

"Just like that..." finally muttered Shikamaru, jumping out after Naruto. Neji and Shino quickly followed.

Sasuke turned around, holding back the irritation. Of course, he could've seen this coming, but not so shortly after his arrival to the village…

His gaze then stopped on the Hyūga accompanying his old teammate – the same one he had seen back at the BBQ. This was the guy who had insisted on him being a nukenin… His Byakugan was activated, although he clearly wasn't about to fight anybody.

Naturally…

"I already began to forget there were dōjutsu users alive other than me," he said calmly, completely ignoring Naruto and honestly not wanting to talk to any of them at the moment. "What was your name?" Of course, he remembered that his name was Neji. Still, since the Hyūga was obviously the cause of this unwanted annoyance, and also considering his previous observations from the barbeque store, the Uchiha unwillingly mocked the guy to get some cheap revenge...

Naruto quickly ran up to Sasuke, stopping a few yards away from him. The other three slowly joined the blond boy. Neji's expression didn't change much besides getting a bit more serious. Apparently, he decided not to notice the Uchiha's taunt. As they got closer, he deactivated his Byakugan as a gesture of politeness – it wasn't needed anymore at any rate.

"Well, it was hard not to–" Before Neji would have finished, Naruto butted in again.

"Your first response is to be a smartass? Seriously?!" the blonde shouted once again, clenching his fists. Although at the first glance one could probably say that Naruto was extremely mad, those surrounding him knew the Uzumaki boy all too well to understand how happy he was right now. Wiping his face with his palm of few times, the jinchūriki finally became a little bit more serious.

"There's a lot of stuff I wanna ask you, but all things considered right now – mind telling us why it took you so long to come back? And what did you want from grandma Tsunade?" Shikamaru was surprised how Naruto went straight to the point. He noted once again that the kid from their academy years had definitely matured, even though he still acted like a troublesome brat sometimes. The jōnin didn't want to interrupt so he lit up another cigarette, watching the not-so-friendly reunion.

"The reason to that is…," Sasuke paused, looking at Shikamaru who was peering at him searchingly, appearing to be the most curious to hear his answer out of the four of them, "...None of your business."

He wouldn't tell them even if he wanted to, of course, which he totally didn't. In his opinion, this kind of information couldn't be handed to someone like Naruto, let alone the other three whom he didn't trust at all as of now.

However, deciding to take a precaution as he absolutely didn't want to deal with them any longer than it would be necessary, he added before Naruto would explode,

"This is a top-secret mission given to me by the Fifth. This is all you need to know."

Naruto glared intently at his former comrade. He then decided that the fact that they weren't clashing weapons right now already meant a lot to him. Uzumaki relaxed a bit, and let out a sigh.

"That's fine. I'm just glad you're finally back," said Naruto calmly with his usual reassuring smile. He genuinely seemed to be content at the moment. Neji was silently listening to them both, deciding it wouldn't be a good time to chime in, just like Shino. Shikamaru, on the other hand, looked a little bit annoyed. He finished his cigarette before it would expire, putting the butt of it in his pocket.

"I'm sure you came specifically here for a reason, so I'm guessing we shouldn't be bothering you for too long. Naruto, you can chat with him more tomorrow, since he's obviously here to stay…" Shikamaru walked up a bit closer to the two shinobi, watching for Sasuke's reaction carefully. Even though the jōnin wasn't sure if he really wanted to stay, the Uchiha didn't protest. On the contrary, even without showing it he somehow seemed to be supportive of the idea of these four leaving him alone right now. Or maybe it was just Shikamaru's intuition...

Surprisingly, Naruto didn't object.

"Besides, we wouldn't want to talk about these sorts of things considering that ROOT has ears and eyes probably all over this place, given its significance and all." Shikamaru glanced over the forest that surrounded the compound. The sun had set a long time ago, and now the moon was looming over Konoha. Naruto, Shino and Neji didn't understand exactly what their friend meant, but they got the idea that it was best to shut up and leave by how serious he looked when he said it. Before Naruto would once again proclaim that it was great to have Sasuke back, Shikamaru hesitated and stopped, looking over his shoulder.

"So... in the end, you got what you wanted, you got your revenge. Was it worth it? Does it feel better now?" The jōnin remembered his teacher's fate, as well as the fate of the one who had killed him. That feeling of emptiness he experienced the moment he buried Hidan in the forest, it still lingered within him. He was now curious of the state of mind of someone who experienced something similar...

The brief, emptied and aloof glance full of pain that Sasuke gave him in response without saying anything told Shikamaru more than he had probably expected to hear. Turning away from them, the Uchiha slowly proceeded to the territory of his clan, finally about to meet the welcoming torment he had been running away from for over three years.

His desolate home…

* * *

**A/N. Will Sasuke return to Tobi or not? We'll see the next chapter! OwO Take care and have a nice day!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N. Thank you so much for reviews and feedback! 3 We hope you guys like this chapter too! OwO **

* * *

**Chapter 3. Family Bonds**

As he walked into the cemetery of his memories he had once called his home, Sasuke instantly began to feel anxiety increasing with every passing moment. He could already sense the cold grip of the almost forgotten fear and despair tightening on his throat, and it was disturbing, to say the least. He belatedly realized that wasn't ready to face it all again yet. He wasn't ready to be here at all. Not after everything Itachi had told and shown him… Not knowing the full extent of just how tragic and horrible was what had happened here almost ten years ago.

He could see something unbearably painful in every single crack in the walls and the ground. In the blind broken windows of countless forever abandoned houses around him. Even in the way the wind was whispering to him something illegible yet so frightening as if begging him to run away again...

Sasuke stopped, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to calm down. He knew that he had no time to wallow in sentimentality, what was done was done no matter how catastrophic it was. Aside from Madara, he was the only Uchiha remaining alive. And if he was to be forever haunted by the ghosts of these place…

He would just get rid of them!

The crimson eyes flashed in the soft light of the full moon as he took out his sword, charged it with lightning and cut through the wall of the nearest wooden house. A loud cracking sound followed his swipe. Apparently, the small building had rotten so much that the single blow was enough to make it crumble and collapse completely, making the ninja cover his face from all the dust that raised up in the air.

The Uchiha then roared and cried in rage and agony, storming forward and hitting everything he could see around without aiming. Whether he was trying to demolish everything around or was it just a futile attempt to fight off the ghosts, he didn't even know himself. But by the time when he had already lost the count of things he had destroyed, making yet another wall fall apart, the ninja paused his onslaught, coming back to his senses. The place he was seeing suddenly felt awfully familiar…

Raising his weapon and thus lighting the space around with the chakra streaming through its blade, he narrowed his eyes, looking across the room. And then…

He fell on his knees, dropping the sword on the dusty carpet and beginning to shake.

This was Shisui's home. He had spent countless hours playing here with him and Itachi as a child. On this very floor…

The boy sobbed, hugging himself and writhing so much that his head now rested on the dirty carpet. This was just too much. He was finally breaking down, unable to withstand all the pain and pressure of everything that had happened recently. This was the moment when he realized just how lonely he was. He desperately wanted to feel all those things from his past once again… To be surrounded by family and friends, to have someone who would love him. To have someone he would love himself… To have a place he would be happy to return to no matter what happened to him.

But, the cruel reality was that all of it was gone now. Gone forever. As his scream died out in the empty streets of the abandoned district, Sasuke froze, slowly opening his eyes and deactivating his Sharingan. Is it, though? he thought, gazing at the old picture of Shisui's family smiling at him happily.

Maybe… Just maybe he could still have all of it. Maybe not today, perhaps not even anywhere near in the future. But someday, eventually… After all, he still intended to revive his clan. No, it was his duty. He now also intended to protect Konoha. Yes, life was truly unfair and the world was impossibly cruel – to him, it was probably worse than to most. But, that was simply how things worked. And he, as someone who possessed the Uchiha blood in his veins…

He couldn't fail the legacy entrusted to him...

The ninja got up, grabbing his sword and putting it back in its scabbard before taking a very deep breath and slowly walking out, staggering a little bit. It seemed as if the very air around had changed. He blinked, studying the damage he had caused. Evidently, he'd left more than a dozen buildings in shambles, but now… Now they looked as empty ruins and nothing more. The entire place suddenly stopped giving him the feeling of a haunt, and that was probably a good sign. He was finally getting a hold of himself.

Sasuke strode forward, walking towards his own house – the most decent-looking place out there, even though it'd also been abandoned for a couple of years by now. He realized that he needed to make it suitable for living again, that was his main task for now. And so he entered his home and began to clean everything up.

He didn't know how many hours had passed by the time he heard the barely notable noise just outside the house. The Uchiha got up from the floor, quickly wiping his face and grabbing his sword just in case. Knowing that Danzō was somewhere within the village, he needed to be careful even here at home…

To his surprise, though, there was a single kunoichi standing just behind his door. She was dressed oddly, wearing some grey rugs that looked as if she had taken them from a homeless person somewhere in the outskirts, her blonde hair not even visible at all under the patched hood.

"May I come in?" asked the Fifth, probably in the most polite manner she was capable of, to which he simply nodded, stepping aside and letting her enter the house before closing the door behind her back.

Finally able to take off the nasty hood, Tsunade visibly relaxed, although the way she peered at him promised nothing good.

"I'm taking his head. This isn't negotiable," he snapped with a deadpan expression before she could say anything.

"Please. Don't acting like a spoiled brat, unless you want to die before even getting close to what your brother wanted of you." Tsunade was getting a bit impatient with his demanding characteristics. She looked around the house they were in. Since it was night time outside, and there were no light sources inside, the whole place looked even more gloomy with the presence of sulking yet vengeful Uchiha.

"Listen, I don't mind getting the village rid of that cancerous blob, but it needs to be done carefully. Definitely not anywhere near Konoha. You have absolutely no idea the power that person has amassed ever since the Fourth passed." The woman sighed. The mere thought of Danzō gave her a headache. She sat down on the floor in an unexpectedly childish manner, leaning back at the wall of the house.

"You may take his head, I don't care about that. What I do care about is how you're going to do it, and you're going to do it my way. I understand you were relying just on yourself these past few years, but since you've decided to return – you're going to have to learn what compromise is, and how to work with others." The Fifth said this with a calm and neutral tone. She wasn't trying to belittle Sasuke, nor teach him anything. She was speaking to him as an equal… Or so she wanted him to believe. Well, at least he was an equal to that troublesome idiot at least, the one who kept calling her a grandma…

And although she sounded more than a bit annoying to him, he realized that she was trying hard to stay respectful. To an extent, he felt the same way himself right now. Probably only because he realized that it was the only way this game could keep going without spilling blood… Not that he would mind that very much, to be honest, but he also realized that this wasn't something Itachi would want of him.

"Don't misunderstand… I don't care where and how I'll have to do it, but I am going to kill him. I'm informing you as the Hokage. This is my condition for staying in the village… and not trying to claim your place forcibly. Your clan has owed mine that much for decades, don't forget about it," he said calmly yet menacingly, implying the fact that despite the equal terms the village had been initially founded on, no Uchiha had ever been a Hokage.

Tsunade eyed him for a bit before saying anything.

"With all the secrecy we're having right now, especially considering ROOT's presence, you really need to work on your covert speech skills," she said with a tired grimace. No matter the circumstances, she realized that it was still just a child before her. A traumatized, lonely child. Exactly the same as Naruto. But, considering what that same blonde ninja had shown her over the years, sometimes being even wiser than she or any other elder, she couldn't help but feel empathy for the Uchiha and low-key genuinely wanting to help him.

"Don't misunderstand me as well. Whatever qualms you think you or your clan had with my ancestors have nothing to do with me personally. I don't owe you anything. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I'm doing this more for that stupid brat who never gave up on you. Whatever you believe the Senju have inflicted upon the Uchiha there's always a second or even third opinion… I don't think either of us wants a debate on this matter," Tsunade paused for a bit to let him process that. She visually relaxed even more, almost like she was actually enjoying the conversation.

"It's very simple. You'll get what you want, and we're going to do it right. Since you wish to follow your brother's path, then it would benefit you to understand his philosophy as well. Brands such as clans, armies, nations are exactly what brings out the hatred towards each other. I'm going to treat you exactly the same way as I treat everyone here. Like a Konoha citizen, and a Konoha shinobi," she suddenly stood up, and walked up to Sasuke.

"We're not the family you wanted, but this is the family you have from now on. I will do everything in my power to assist a family member. Starting with helping you find a way to deal with him, and afterwards, we can think about what we can do about this place," she looked around the house once again.

"I expect my family members to do the same for me, and others. Regardless of their status, or their past." She reached out to shake his hand, thus coming to an agreement.

"I don't think you understand," finally replied Sasuke, ignoring her gesture. "The security of this village is my only concern at this point. If I view you as someone who can ensure it, I don't really mind you keeping your position," he mused after a moment of thinking. "That man, however, is a direct threat. An entire clan has been wiped out due to his decision. The Uchiha may not be the last. What if he targets the Hyūga next, as the biggest and the most independent clan remaining in the village? Or worse, what if he decides that Naruto shouldn't be the host of the Nine-Tails any longer? He wouldn't hesitate to kill all of them if needed," he looked into her eyes, noticing the tiniest note of fear deep in the brown irises as he mentioned his friend's name. "And if you do realize this much, then why is he still walking around?"

Tsunade didn't reply right away, still having her hand reached out to Sasuke and silently admiring the boy's intelligence and cunning. Of course, he wasn't the first one to come up with such an idea. That was exactly the reason why she didn't really mind getting rid of Danzō, especially the last thing he said... Perhaps Naruto was her weak spot after all. And Sasuke definitely hadn't missed her reaction to his words...

"And there's more to that. I was given a certain task by Akatsuki. I'm supposed to retrieve the Eight-Tails… He and Naruto are the only ones left, they've collected the rest. What do you think are the chances that Danzō, as soon as he finds out about this, will leave Naruto alone?" He decided to push, although he wasn't quite sure why. His intuition was telling him that he shouldn't just accept her as his superior; he might respect Itachi's way of living, but he wasn't Itachi himself. Despite formally being her subordinate, he wasn't going to be a servant, let alone a servant to a Senju.

The Fifth didn't reply to that immediately either. She was thinking over his words, and while she was doing that her facial expression started to change a bit. She was beginning to feel annoyed.

"I didn't come here to argue with you. You seem to be thinking you're holding all the aces up your sleeve, even though I don't understand what's the point of it, but you obviously do not know how big the world actually is. Or at least what was happening in Konoha in your absence." She finally put down her hand. She seemed to have tensed up a little bit, now looking a bit more like a Hokage should, rather than a friendly person who came for a casual conversation.

"We're aware of Akatsuki's motives, going far back when Itachi came to Konoha. A lot has happened since then as well, but you wouldn't know, now would you?" Now it seemed that Sasuke had hit a nerve. With how much disrespect Naruto usually showed to her, having another brat like that by her side would a huge headache for Tsunade. Still, she can't help but actually feel what the dark-haired teen was trying to say. She'd always felt the same around Jiraiya before and around Naruto these days. How annoying... Why do I always end up surrounded by men like this?

"Tch. I don't need you to give me more reasons to take care of him. As I said, you will have my and others' support in this. Just as you _de-man-ded_…" she stretched the last word, as if making fun of it. The boy didn't react at all, and she sighed.

"I will not take away your comfort if this is how you want to be. However, you must learn that things are rarely so simple as you seem to believe they are. There's a lot to consider, but also plenty of options to choose from on how to act." Although it was very dark in the room they were in, Sasuke could see a glimpse of her eyes that were filled, much to his astonishment, with care rather than with superiority or hostility.

"I don't know what you exactly think about me, and honestly I don't give a rat's ass. If you want to play hard to get – by all means, keep going. We can agree on one thing for now, and that is the security of Konoha being the most important thing of all. So we'll work on that first." The Fifth pulled over the hood on her head, looking disgusted as the dirty fabric touched her face. She then turned around to walk towards the exit. The woman stopped at the door, hesitating for a moment before glancing at him once more.

"Regardless of your opinion of me, or Konoha – I truly _am_ happy that you have returned. We will discuss the details of your mission by means of random drops. Something important will be happening soon that will require him to move to other nations. You will find the first information drop at these coordinates." She shuffled in her pockets, trying to find a small scroll. As she finally found it, she gently put it on the floor beside her.

"Good night." With that, she left the building and disappeared into the night.

Sasuke frowned, picking up the scroll and glancing at it with his Sharingan before crumpling the paper in his hand and then burning it with his chakra. As much as he yearned to kill the man here and now, maybe Tsunade was right and it was unwise to go after him in a straightforward manner. First, he needed to study his adversary – that's what Itachi would do in his place. He had no idea what kind of powers and resources Danzō could possess, that was true. If Sasuke was planning to take the man's life but remain in Konoha at the same time, free of any charges, he had to come up with a detailed plan for his revenge.

The ninja sighed, switching off the lights in the house and then walking outside, inhaling some fresh air that instantly made him feel better and to get somewhat reassured. Maybe he wouldn't be able to enjoy the final screams of Danzō personally, but he could still make him die a horrible death…

It just had to be done by someone else.

Anyhow, the boy realized to his displeasure that he definitely required allies at this. Spying on someone who was the head of all spies in the village was no trivial task. The only sensory-type ninja he knew was Karin, but she was out of the question as the girl was most likely considered a criminal in Konoha. Which meant that he had to find someone else, preferably a few people. But who?

As he walked towards the broken gates of the compound, the Uchiha began trying to recall his old classmates' abilities. The only ones he really knew thoroughly were Naruto, Sakura, Lee and maybe also Neji. The latter one could help him a lot with his Byakugan, without a doubt… But, Neji wasn't really trustworthy from Sasuke's point of view. Not only because the guy had shown distrust towards him back at the barbeque, but also due to him being a part of the Branch House of his clan. Should anything go wrong, he would have no choice but to sell Sasuke out to the head of the Hyūga brethren, whoever it might be.

But, aside from these four, he knew nobody else. In other words, he needed to do some research…

Sasuke grunted at the final realization, already anticipating just how much of a pain it was going to be. Still, there was probably no other choice…

For now, he had to question Naruto and to do it in the way so that the dumbass wouldn't get too suspicious.

–**=OwO=**–

By the time Sasuke left his territory morning had almost come, but some of the Konoha 11 ninjas only recently had gone home to rest. Kiba was unable to walk so his trusty pet – Akamaru – had to carry his owner back home. Rock Lee and Ten-Ten left together, as they were the only ones completely sober of the bunch by the end of the party. The rest kept walking across the village together, sometimes missing their houses and doing an extra circle around the districts, ultimately finding their home randomly at some point.

It was already past 1 PM when Naruto finally started to wake up. He felt something heavy was obstructing him from actually getting up from the bed. As he reluctantly opened his eyes, he found out that it was actually a big wooden barrel on top of him that was making things... harder. At first, he was surprised, then confused, then enraged. He tried hard to remember, but it seemed he had forgotten what happened after they returned to the barbecue house and stayed there until early morning. The teen pushed the barrel on the floor and went to take a shower while, unknown to him, the Nine-Tails was already working on healing his body from the damage caused by alcohol.

After an hour or so, the blonde shinobi was walking the streets of Konoha, enjoying the sunny day. He was happy, almost blissfully so. His promise to Sakura was finally fulfilled, even though he didn't do anything, in the end, to actually bring Sasuke back. But that didn't matter anymore. Although the issue with the Fifth the Uchiha had mentioned still bothered him. In the past, he would've already forgotten about it, but now he was quite concerned. Granny Tsunade still hasn't contacted him to let him know about Sasuke, so that meant she was deliberately hiding the information about him. Well, he'd find out the truth sooner or later. For now, he needed something to eat...

"Oi, Naruto! I was wondering if you'd show up today." He heard a very familiar voice as he walking past by Ramen Ichiraku. It was the old man waving, inviting him to sit down. Naruto smiled and ran to take his usual seat – luckily free at the time. Around fifteen minutes passed as they were talking about the most mundane things. The man's daughter Ayame actively participating in the talk and, unknown to the boy and probably to herself, trying to fix her looks to look better in his presence. But, when Naruto finally received a bowl of his favourite ramen, there was no hope that he'd notice anything around anymore, of course.

"Itadakimasu!" he almost yelled out, as he began to eat. Eventually, Sakura and Ino stopped by. It seemed they were on their way elsewhere when they noticed Konoha's favourite ninja at the Ramen shop – or, given that they both knew his habits thoroughly, maybe they'd been actually looking for him.

"So you woke up only an hour ago, huh?" Asked Sakura. The blonde ninja laughed shyly. "You look surprisingly well," added the medic ninja with a slight sadness, rubbing her face. Although the girls didn't mention that they were in the same boat, it was still pretty obvious no matter the makeup. The night and following morning were a bit too much for all of them it seemed. Still, they joined Naruto in his feast and ordered something for themselves even though neither was exactly a fan of ramen.

Meanwhile, none of them noticed another former classmate of theirs silently approach them. Not that he was trying to be stealthy on purpose or anything like that, of course, striding toward them steadily and firmly. But, Sasuke still didn't make a sound as he came close to the three of them sitting at the table. Obviously, none of them could see him as they were sitting with their backs facing the street, so when the Uchiha entered the place, he had a moment to analyze who exactly he was seeing and how to behave in their presence.

Quite ironically, Naruto was accompanied by the two girls who had once used to be Sasuke's greatest fangirls in the entire village. He recognized them instantly without having to study them at all; these two, he would never in his life confuse them with anybody else. If anything, it made him want to go away and come to talk to his friend some other time, so he even took a step backwards. But then the Uchiha decided that it was far below him to run away like that. After all, if these two remained the same as before, they weren't worth any of his attention at all and he would just make them shut up. And if they had changed in these few years of his absence, maybe they weren't as bad as before anymore.

He stepped forward again, stopping right next to the three of them.

"Naruto," he said calmly, watching how Sakura and Ino instantly flinched at the mere sound of his voice, slightly jumping on their seats. Though he definitely wasn't someone who liked pranks, it still almost made him chuckle inwardly. The idiot probably hadn't told them about his return just yet… Such perfect timing. "I need to talk to you."

The two kunoichis slowly turned their heads and raised their eyes to look at him towering over them. Sakura just stared at the ninja blankly, thinking that maybe the alcohol was still very much active in her system, or perhaps something funny accidentally got in her food. Ino choked on her noodles and started beating on her chest, coughing. However, the jinchūriki seemed to be absolutely unfazed by this. He continued eating steadily, just gave a small nod to Sasuke without turning around.

"Mhm!" he mumbled something with his mouth full. After a few seconds of grave silence, he finally finished up his bowl, drinking the soup his usual sonorous way. "Ha-ah! That was good. Thanks, old man!" he left the money on the table, and only then finally turned around to look at Sasuke closely. Before he could say anything else, he felt a very tight grip around his neck by the rose-haired ninja.

"What the hell?! You sound like you already knew he was here!" She looked angry, while Naruto's expression became genuinely scared. Sakura then switched her gaze to Sasuke. "And you! How can you just casually walk in here after all this time?!" she yelled at him as well. The gravity of the situation still hadn't seeped in completely with her. The Yamanaka girl was just watching them all silently, trying to comprehend what just happened. Sakura continued to strangle Naruto while he tried to make excuses for the situation.

"You're really... back?" said Ino quietly. That was the phrase that stopped the fighting between Naruto and Sakura and made them remember the cause of it. Naruto just smiled as he looked at his female teammate, still being locked in her grip. Sakura finally snapped out of her rage trip and looked up on Sasuke. The girl's eyes only so slightly started to water, but she quickly wiped her face with the other hand and smiled as well.

Sasuke's gaze slid from Ino to Sakura back and forth as he was choosing words wisely. He didn't really want to make enemies here right now but at the same time… He certainly didn't feel like bending too much, at least definitely not to the point of stopping being himself. That's why he decided to say the only thing he would say under these circumstances…

"I have legs so I can walk wherever I want, Sakura. Or did you think that I need your permission?" His brow slightly raised while his overall demeanour remained cold and indifferent. His eyes then returned to Naruto who still appeared to be at the pink-haired kunoichi's mercy, though now it looked more like a hug than an attempt to kill him as her arms were now simply wrapped around his neck. "It's the mission I told you about. I realized that I need your advice."

Sakura then finally let go of Naruto, perhaps a bit too quickly, slightly blushing in the process and then looking at Sasuke again, frowning. Although his words didn't sound pleasant, they certainly resembled the things he used to say before he left. It was him without a doubt.

"Do whatever you want, just don didn't disappear in the fire like the last time." She retorted, though still looking very happy. Ino, however, found his response rude and frowned at it. Her blind love for the perfect Sasuke has faded over the years, so she was feeling probably a bit more rational than her ex-rival.

"Come on, you can do better than that," Yamanaka said to the Uchiha, thinking to herself that maybe Sasuke's social skills atrophied even further over these past few years. She also found it funny how he resembled his replacement in Team Seven right now, though was considerably grimmer. She smiled a bit at the thought but changed her face pretty quickly to a friendly-relaxed one.

"And what is this mission you're talking about?" Sakura finally asked the next most obvious question. Uzumaki was standing near Sasuke already, trying to keep his distance from Sakura for now as he was getting used to breathing freely again.

"Hey, I know it's kinda shocking, and I'm sorry I didn't say anything about it last night. He's really back, that's for sure though!" he patted Sasuke on the back, which made the latter visually uncomfortable. "But let's talk about this later, okay? Granny Tsunade knows of his return as well, so she'll most likely brief the rest of us about this when she decides it's the time. We can talk more about everything later. Maybe even this evening, huh?" he looked enthusiastically at Sasuke and Sakura. To his surprise, both looked unimpressed by his suggestion, though each for their own reasons.

"Anyway... Sure, ask me anything. You wanna do it here or…?" turning again to face Sasuke, said Naruto.

"Doesn't matter, might as well do it here," said the Uchiha, realizing that it would be better to lower their vigilance by not being overly secretive, yet at the same time not wanting to reveal any important details to any of them including the jinchūriki himself. "I'm basically looking for a crew. Particularly, a few ninjas who are either sensory type or specialize in tracking. They have to be trustworthy and able to keep their mouths shut. Do you have anybody in mind?" asked the Uchiha, diligently ignoring the girls. Although he could admit that seeing Ino not being exactly friendly towards him rather pleased the ninja than upset him. Maybe now she had some brain in her skull after all. At the very least she was wise enough not to get obsessed over someone like him who had always been nearly hostile towards her.

All the three of them looked at Sasuke, appearing a bit confused. Everything was progressing too fast, but then again, that's how the Uchiha had always been – straight to business, no unnecessary sentiments. Naruto wanted to ask what was this about, and why did his friend need certain people all of a sudden, but decided to leave that for another time. He realized that Sasuke probably didn't trust anybody but him even though he hadn't made it clear to the girls.

Sakura shook her head, thinking to herself that, of course, this probably wasn't going to be the happy ending. There was always something to make things bitter when it came to Sasuke... She let out a visible sigh, and leaned back on the table, now facing the street absently.

"I'm a sensory type." The blonde kunoichi suddenly said, while looking down her glass of water thoughtfully.

"Really? I never knew about that!" said Naruto, looking sincerely surprised.

"Why would you? Not like we spend a lot of time together," she replied calmly, switching her gaze from Naruto to Sasuke, and resting her head on her hand. Uzumaki gave her an apologetic look.

"Sorry... But oh! For the tracking part, I think Neji will do great. After all, he's the one who noticed and followed you yesterday," the blond shinobi said and smiled. "Then there's Kiba, and maybe even Shino..."

"Oh please, as if Kiba would be able to keep his mouth shut about anything," Sakura interrupted him. "Neji-san and Ino would be your best bet, Sasuke-kun, if that's what you're looking for specifically," she added, now being more serious than a minute ago.

"I'll consider that," said Sasuke dryly, not looking at Sakura but glancing at Ino again, as if estimating her briefly. "Anybody else? And also, which of them is also a good fighter?" The question he was really meant to ask was 'which of them has a good kill record', but that would be far too blatant even for someone like him.

"Good morning, kids!" Another familiar voice coming from behind suddenly interrupted their conversation. "Yo, Sasuke. Didn't expect to see you this early, let alone here of all places."

"Kakashi." The Uchiha scowled. A hearty reunion with his former sensei wasn't exactly what he had in his mind for today…

"Glad to hear that you still remember my name," the grey-haired ninja chuckled, "How are things?"

"Hn. They were fine until you showed up." Sasuke turned away stubbornly, already beginning to regret coming here in such a daring manner.

"Oh, really?" the elder man drawled, smiling behind his mask. "Well, that's sad to hear. Because I have some news for you, and you might dislike it. So you could say that I've come to spoil your mood even more."

"What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura, appearing slightly worried. Naruto frowned but said nothing, and so did Ino. Sasuke himself kept up the mask of indifference, although he definitely didn't like the sound it either.

"Hokage-sama wants you and Naruto to get promoted to chūnin as soon as possible, but since the nearest exam is in five months, you two will have to do a certain mission together to receive the special award. Or rather, we all are going to do it as Team Seven."

Sasuke's eye twitched.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Sadly I am. But, this is Hokage's order. She wants us to arrive at her office in two days; I assume she's giving you some time to readjust and have some rest and so on."

Just what is she thinking… '_Damn you, Senju,'_ thought the Uchiha angrily.

"That is SO cool!" suddenly exclaimed Naruto, grinning so widely that one could think that his birthday came earlier than it should have. "Can't wait to get some action! Finally, we're all back together! Right, Sasuke?"

Gosh, just shut the fuck up…

"I don't have any time to readjust or whatever you call it. There are things I must do," he snapped, turning back to Naruto. "Where can I find Neji Hyūga? And the others you mentioned."

"They should be at their homes. Unless they have any other business to attend to…," said Sakura. She grabbed a napkin from the table, took out a pen from her hip bag and started drawing something.

"As for your other question about combat capability, Neji comes to mind first as well, you might remember how good he was a few years ago. Kiba would be too loud, unpredictable even. Shino would do well instead of him, but only if you convince him to work without his teammates," added Ino, looking a bit bored as she heard that only Team Seven would be getting a mission. Sakura finished drawing a map and handed the napkin to Sasuke.

"Here. That's where you'll find the Hyūga compound and Aburame's clan territory. I also drew directions to Yamanaka's flower shop in case if you'll need to speak with Ino later." She then turned to Kakashi. "Is there anything else we need to do before the briefing with Tsunade-sama in two days, sensei?" she asked.

"Yeah, did she give you any details? Anything you can share now?" asked Naruto impatiently.

"Eh, unfortunately, nothing I could tell you guys at the moment. All I know is this will be a very difficult mission, so you better get prepared. Oh, and also! Sasuke, if you are going to Hyūga's, would you please do me a favour and give this to Hiashi-san? I'm afraid I'm short on time today, especially now that I've dropped by to say hello to my favourite students." The sly smirk behind the mask was beyond obvious to everyone. Sasuke realized that Kakashi was probably lying about not having any free time, simply wanting to force the Uchiha to do his job. Still, this was a good opportunity to break into the Hyūga clan's territory, so the ninja reluctantly accepted the scroll without complaints.

"Fine. See you," he said curtly, walking out of the eatery.

Since it was just past noon, the streets were pretty crowded, especially with the late summer sun being so bright this day – the weather was extraordinarily good. Everyone seemed to be willing to spend this day outside if possible, and it was honestly hard to blame them. Fortunately, not many people there recognized Sasuke, so he got to his destination without any unwanted disturbances.

He instantly spotted the two guards near the only gate leading to the clan's territory. Frankly, he wasn't in the mood to explain himself to them, so he decided to get inside unnoticed just out of the rational will to save some time. Clearly, they weren't very well trained since nobody noticed him jumping over the wooden paling. As soon as he was on the private ground, the Uchiha activated his Sharingan and with a few more jumps reached the second floor of the main building, slipping inside through an open window.

"For those who utilize a dōjutsu capable of seeing everything around, they're not too wary," he muttered to himself, almost feeling disappointed by how easily he had infiltrated the place.

The mansion itself seemed to be at the very least half-empty at the moment. He didn't meet a single person in the corridors as he silently walked across the building, only hearing a few noises coming from various rooms here and there. Eventually, he stopped, finally noticing a girl with long dark-blue hair who was standing near the window, staring at the distance with her hands locked in front of her, her thumbs nervously rubbing one against another. She seemed deep in thought, but he didn't care.

"Hey," he said quietly, ruining the absolute silence that filled the place. She flinched, turning her head to look at him and then frowned, apparently confused by seeing an unfamiliar face. But, a second later her white eyes widened. She slowly opened her mouth, though unable to utter a sound for some reason. "Where can I find your clan's head? I have a delivery for him," the ninja said patiently, realizing that she had just recognized him.

"Um–uh–well…"

"Hinata-sama! It's ready, I–Sasuke?" the already familiar brown-haired ninja walked out the nearest room, holding a carefully packed set of clothes in his hands. "What are you doing here? Got lost?"

As tempting as it was to say something like equally provocative in response, the Uchiha decided to control his emotions and remain calm no matter what. Especially given that his own business actually had to do with this very guy, and he had just spared Sasuke from having to search for him.

"Yeah. Was just looking for someone like you to show me the way."

"The way out, I presume?" Neji frowned, looking quite unfriendly.

"N-Neji-nii-san!" suddenly yelped the girl, frowning at her cousin. "This is impolite. S-Sasuke-san is probably here for a reason."

"Apologies, Hinata-sama," instantly said the shinobi, not removing his eyes off the Uchiha. "What brings you here?"

"This," Sasuke showed him the sealed scroll Kakashi had given him. "And I was also looking for you."

"For me?" Neji blinked, this time looking taken by surprise. "For what, if I may ask?"

"It's a private matter."

"Whatever you want to tell me, you may say it in Hinata-sama's presence," said the Hyūga firmly, almost making Sasuke lose control over his increasing irritation.

"Really? Then maybe I should talk to her instead? Since she is obviously the one with authority here," he mused impassively, looking at Hinata who blushed at his words, looking both nervous and scared now.

"Sasuke–!" Neji began dangerously, narrowing his eyes.

"What do we have here?" a loud voice boomed through the passage as the head of the Hyūga clan showed up from the stairs. He kept his hands in the sleeves of his robe, looking perfectly calm as per usual.

"I see you're finally feeling well after your nightly adventures..." he looked over the two young Hyūgas who gave the man equally ashamed looks. "Honestly, I've expected better of you," he added, looking slightly disappointed, though not really angry or mad at them. Letting out a sigh, he finally looked at the uninvited guest in the room.

"I thought I heard you had something for me, young Uchiha?"

"Yeah," Sasuke handed him the scroll. "Kakashi told me to give you this."

"Hm-m," the eldest shinobi took the scroll and carefully unwrapped it, his eyes quickly running over what was written in it. "I see. Thank you for delivering it so swiftly, this is indeed important. Is there anything else I or our clan could help you with?" The man frankly sounded just too nice, especially considering that the Hyūga and the Uchiha had never exactly been friends in the past. Moreso given the reputation Sasuke had in the village at the moment – and the boy had no delusions on this matter.

"I've come to ask… for help," he almost winced by the ending of the sentence, though realizing that right now he had to swallow his pride. "I was given a certain mission by the Fifth, and I'm currently gathering a suitable crew. I need someone with Byakugan to assist me."

Hiashi paused, putting away the scroll in one of his pockets.

"I see. Of course. I think you can have a chat with Neji here about that. Since it's a mission coming from the Hokage herself, I imagine those who aren't involved shouldn't hear anything about it." He gave Hinata a pointed look, and the girl immediately caught his gaze and nodded. She quickly took the clothes Neji had brought, and joined Hiashi's side, now standing slightly behind his back.

"I take it you have no further business with me specifically. As soon as you've spoken with Neji, you may leave the compound through the gates. No need to jump across the branches again," the man added, giving a small bow towards the Uchiha, and then walked away. Hinata gave a worried look at her cousin but reluctantly left as well, closing the door that led to the stairs.

"I'm listening." The jōnin sounded professional, and perhaps a bit too impassive. He wasn't pleased with Sasuke's choice of an entrance but decided to let that slide for now. Hiashi didn't seem to care too much, after all, so he had no reason to either.

Sasuke suddenly found himself dumbfounded. He hadn't actually thought his plan through this far; perhaps he hadn't really believed he would be able to get a Hyūga to work for him so easily. And yet he was lucky enough to basically have the clan's head permission to command this guy; now he wouldn't be able to be too cocky which was, without a doubt, a good development.

"How private is this place exactly?" asked the Uchiha, implying that he wasn't sure how freely he could talk right now.

Neji looked at him questionably.

"It is private enough. It's one of the few quarters used by Hinata-sama. If you want, we can go somewhere else..." The man crossed his arms on his chest. "What is this about, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha sighed, rapidly thinking. Maybe it was indeed a secure place, but it was only such for a member of the Hyūga clan, not for him. He needed to ensure that nobody could possibly overhear them... Besides, he'd wanted to try it out for a while by now anyway, so Sasuke decided that it was a good opportunity. Especially since it would definitely put this guy in his place for good by showing him the difference in their powers…

Sasuke's eyes suddenly turned red, the three tomoe pattern twisting and forming a six-pronged one. Before Neji was able to react, he was caught in a genjutsu that probably was nowhere as strong as Itachi's Tsukuyomi, but was still potent enough to render a Hyūga completely helpless.

"Now it is private enough. Listen, it's a top-secret mission the Fifth gave me. Before I tell you the details, I need to know if you're willing to help and if I can trust you, or I should rather look for someone else. Nobody else is allowed to know it without my permission."

The Hyūga didn't reply right away, trying to comprehend what just happened. For some reason, he felt numb, and it was hard to move his jaw.

"You have a funny way to ask for help... Uchiha." Neji growled. He finally got used to this unpleasant feeling that Sasuke put him under. "I'm ready to help... The Fifth, or whatever Hiashi-sama asks of me. Which is exactly what you've got right now."

Sasuke nodded.

"Fine. The thing is that the Fifth believes that a certain man in the village is in charge of some criminal business that has already caused undetermined damage to the Leaf, and it possibly keeps causing it. Our task is to get as much information on this man as we can. To spy on him, basically. For now anyway." He decided not to tell Neji that the real goal was to kill the subject in one way or another, at least not yet. "His name is Danzō Shimura."

Neji felt as if the invisible constraints were being lifted slowly. He could finally think clearly for a moment.

"Danzō Shimura?" he repeated, his eyes widening. "One of the Konoha Council…?" The Hyūga shook his head, trying to think of a reason for this kind of order to come from the Fifth. Part of him wanted to object since Sasuke's arguments weren't convincing enough. He felt he was omitting something, but with Hiashi-sama's approvement of this, and if the claim that the Fifth was in charge was true...

"Fine. I can do that. We will have to discuss further details though, like what information you're looking for specifically, points of contact for sharing the information and so on."

"Fine by me. We're getting sent on some other mission in the next couple of days, so you have some time to think. You may go to the Fifth to confirm my words, I don't care. What I want you to do is to think about other people who could help us gather information on Danzō. Can you make it?"

"Yeah..." Neji was already thinking of what other people he should involve in this. He wasn't really happy getting anyone else into a dirty business like that, honestly. However, a mission was a mission. They were all equal when it came to this kind of job.

"Will do. Will there be any way to contact you?"

"I'll find you myself as soon as we return. If you have something urgent to discuss, just come to my place, I'm sure you can tell if I'm home or not," Sasuke said it in a deliberately casual tone as if everyone was supposed to know where he lived, just like they always had prior to the massacre. He could see a shade of confusion in the white eyes of his new accomplice, but then Neji understood what he was saying and nodded. "Later then."

"Got it," replied Neji. "See you."

Sasuke undid the genjutsu, deactivating his Sharingan and instantly turning away as he felt the horrible burn in his right eye. He covered it with his palm, almost hissing as he strode towards the stairs that led to the exit if he imagined the infrastructure of the place right. A few seconds later the pain decreased, becoming somewhat tolerable, so he lowered his hand and frowned. Was this what Itachi had felt whenever he used his Mangekyō? If this was normal, then it was truly astonishing how his late brother had managed to keep fighting in this state, especially after using it multiple times in a row…

Lost in his thought for a moment, he almost bumped into the same girl he had met back in that corridor – Neji's cousin._ 'Hinata, was it...?'_

"Oh–I'm sorry, Sasuke-san, I–I wasn't looking where I was going.' She quickly bowed in an apology, looking at him with a mixture of fear and curiosity. At this moment Sasuke silently thanked his own vigilance for deciding to take his conversation with Neji into the genjutsu world – from what it looked like, she might have tried to eavesdrop.

"It's fine," he shrugged, deciding not to make a fuss about his conclusion. Being a member of the Main House of her clan, he could understand her wanting to know what was going on, especially when her own father had tossed her away like that. It was something he could actually relate to, even though it had happened very long ago.

He already began to walk towards the gate when her soft voice reached his ears once again,

"It's g-good to have you back, Sasuke-san. I–I hope it feels nice to be home again."

The Uchiha stopped. Not that he wasn't ready to hear something like that, especially from some silly girl, but still… Seeing her in the midst of her family cradle, surrounded by all these people who probably loved her and cared for her… Living in the place full of life and warmth, supported by her clan… It made him remember what his home was at the moment. Empty. Lifeless. Dark. Dead…

"Feels nice, huh?" He looked at her over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes. "Why don't you come and see it yourself just how nice it is, Hyūga?"

Her own eyes widened at his sudden passive outburst, and she muttered perplexedly:

"Uh–I–I'm sorry–"

"Forget it." He turned away and began to move again, slightly increasing his pace.

_'What an impudent fool...,' _he thought bitterly, the girl's words still ringing in his ears. He didn't know why, but this brief encounter with her had spoiled his mood far more than the previous conversation with Ino and Sakura.

* * *

**A/N. Please let us know what you guys think! Until the next time! OwO**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Thank you guys so much for the reviews! Really appreciate it. This chapter will clear up some of the confusion one of you expressed! ^.^  
**

* * *

**Chapter 4. A Monster Within**

"Alright, everyone's here at last. Let's get down to business," Tsunade smirked, quickly weaving a few seals with her hands as soon as the door behind Kakashi's back closed.

Every window in the office instantly closed with enhanced curtains, not a single sound breaking in – and out too, Sasuke presumed as his gaze returned at the Hokage. Such secrecy typically promised nothing good to a regular shinobi. But, from his point of view, it was the contrary in that particular situation. It'd been just two days since he'd returned to the village, and he was already dying for some action. Sitting home alone certainly wasn't his cup of tea, even though he didn't quite enjoy the current company either.

"The details of your mission are pretty easy to grasp. Basically, your two teams will temporarily form a single unit – a strike team, to be precise. Your task is to track down and to kill Kisame Hoshigaki, one of the remaining members of Akatsuki. Here is all the data we have on him including his presumed current whereabouts. We know the exact coordinates of their hideout thanks to Sasuke who kindly provided us with this and a bit of other information." She looked at him with an apparent appreciation which he, of course, pretended not to notice. He had promised to cooperate after all. It was nothing special.

"That's why we picked this particular lineup. You lads," she looked at Kiba, Shino and Hinata, who were standing a tad aside of the rest, looking the tiniest bit uncomfortable, "Will do the tracking job. Kakashi will be in charge of the mission as a whole. Naruto will be the decoy; he has to be used as a bait to lure Kisame out. Sasuke, your job is to be the guide for everyone as soon as you arrive at the place, for you're the only one who has been there."

Everyone in the room threw either curious or fearful glances at him – a predictable reaction he'd already gotten used to in the last few days, so he decided to ignore it as well.

"Yamato, Sai, you are the combat support. Make sure not to let anyone get killed. Sakura will back you up as the medic, of course. Any questions?"

For a few seconds, the room was filled with silence, which eventually was interrupted by Shikaku Nara, Hokage's advisor.

"If I may, Hokage-sama? I have a question," he spoke. Everybody in the room looked at him, including the Fifth who gave him a nod of approval. "In my opinion, it would've been better to send Team Ten alongside with Team Eight, as they already have experience fighting members of this organization. Unfortunately, they're on a different mission right now as far as I'm aware. So I was wondering if this operation could potentially be postponed until their return?"

Indeed, unlike Kurenai's team, Team Ten was familiar with a member of Akatsuki. Unfortunately, yesterday the team had been assigned to another mission by the request of Neji Hyūga who in turn, unknown to most people in the room, also had already been assigned for some kind of special mission details of which even Shikaku didn't know.

Sasuke suppressed a satisfied grin. That Hyūga guy was quick to act for sure, whether he liked him personally or not.

Tsunade shook her head.

"No. We've no time to waste. Team Ten would be a good addition for sure, but we need to use the resources we have. Team Eight will do just fine, and we already have enough power to deal with that man," she firmly replied.

"Damn straight! As if we need those snobs to kick some ass," Kiba yelled out, raising his fist. After a second he felt a slap on the back of his head. It came from Shino. "Oi, what's the big idea?!" the boy whined.

"Mind your manners, Kiba. We're in the Hokage's office, that's why. And this is an important mission. Don't humiliate us in front of everybody." Shino's voice was calm and impassive, yet also intimidating somehow. Kiba immediately shut up, once again noting in his mind that his teammate could be creepy sometimes. "Apologies, Tsunade-sama," added Shino.

"Does this mean that Sakura will be under Yamato's command?" Kakashi decided to clarify that.

"Only tactically. You're the best commander when it comes to combat, so I don't want you to get unnecessarily distracted. That fight won't be easy by any means," said Tsunade, to which Hatake simply nodded.

"Understood. I have no questions then."

"I have a question, if I may," said Yamato, making Tsunade turn her head to look at him. "If Naruto is the decoy, and we three are supporting, it leaves us with only two people to actually directly engage Kisame – Kakashi-san and Sasuke. Are you sure this will be enough?"

"Yes. Both of them possess Mangekyō Sharingan which is the key to our plan," said the woman firmly.

"Mangekyō?! Isn't it dangerous to use?" asked Sakura worriedly.

"It is, but we're not taking any chances," said Sasuke abruptly, instantly drawing everyone's attention again. "Orochimaru told me this guy is one of the strongest members of Akatsuki. We can't afford a continuous fight; he must be killed as quickly as possible. I can handle it."

"We can handle it," Kakashi corrected him with a smile, which Sasuke once again ignored.

This whole time Naruto kept standing silently, with his arms crossed on his chest. By the look of his face, one could say that he was very much deep in thought. Perhaps even to the point where he was having problems with understanding of a few things.

"You've been quite wary of using me for anything until now, granny Tsunade, especially as a bait." The Uzumaki emphasized on the word "using", as this was the first time the Fifth ever referred to him in such a manner. The teen obviously didn't like that and had no problem of showing it.

His teammates caught on that as well, now that he mentioned it. Sakura wanted to say something in Tsunade's defence, but seeing Naruto's serious expression, she decided to stay quiet for now.

"Sasuke got back to the village only a couple days ago. And since that meeting in your office that evening…," the boy continued – Tsunade's eyes widened as he clearly meant the conversation she'd had with Sasuke, coming to realise that he'd been spying on them that night, "You've slightly changed." finished Naruto.

The room remained in awkward silence once again. Hokage stared directly into Naruto's eyes. Could it be that he'd figured it out that this was all Sasuke's plan, to begin with?

"That's irrelevant for now. We can talk about it after later." She dismissed whatever Naruto was trying to imply, to which the ninja didn't react passively. He made a step forward and clenched his fists but was quickly stopped by Sai's stretched out arm gripping his elbow. Uzumaki looked at him in confusion, while Sai only answered with a polite smile.

"She's right, Naruto. Now's not the best time. Let's focus on what's ahead of us for now." To everyone's surprise, the least socially savvy shinobi in the room was also the most rational one at the moment.

"Tch. Fine." The blond ninja complied, visibly relaxing. He walked up to the nearby wall and leaned on it, once again crossing his arms on his chest. He wasn't sure himself why, but Naruto didn't like this plan at all. Whenever the subject of Tsunade and Sasuke came up, especially seeing how the Hokage was now accustomed to the Uchiha's presence, he felt as if something was off. He couldn't understand what exactly, or even why he felt this way. However, deep inside, the Tailed Beast was growing restless whenever Sasuke was mentioned.

Of course, Naruto couldn't know what the fox was thinking right now. Working with an Uchiha? Especially one that has betrayed his host already once? The Nine-Tails didn't seem to like the idea at all. Unknown to Naruto, considering his past encounters with this clan's members, the fox would prefer to just kill him now. Unfortunately for the beast, the seal was completely blocking whatever attempts at manipulation of Naruto he had. Still, this burning hatred that the bijū was feeling towards the Uchiha – it was rubbing off on Naruto as well.

"I think we're all set then. Any last bits of information about the mission before we leave to prepare?" Kakashi asked casually.

"Yes, the duration of the whole thing," said Tsunade, sitting down at her table and locking her hands in front of her face. "Since it's uncertain when exactly Kisame will show up, consider this a long-term one and get equipped accordingly. It goes for all of you. You might have to camp there for days, or even weeks."

"W-Weeks…?" mumbled Hinata, looking nervous for some reason.

Tsunade glanced at her and nodded with recognition.

"Yeah. I'll talk to Hiashi about that, he'll have to postpone the ceremony. Sorry, we can't help it. I hope you don't mind."

The girl's lips twitched, revealing the tiniest happy smile.

"N-No, not at all, Hokage-sama."

"Good. You're all dismissed then. Naruto, stay," she suddenly said firmly.

Everyone quickly left the room, leaving the jinchūriki alone with the Fifth shortly. As the door closed, she sighed and pursed her lips.

"Look, brat… I understand that you'd rather prefer fighting Kisame alongside Kakashi and Sasuke, but it's too dangerous to let you do that. If he somehow captures you and slips away, it's over. Not just your life, but our village as well. Maybe even the world, considering that they've gathered seven of the beasts already. Do you understand?"

Naruto kept peering at the Fifth for a few seconds as if waiting for her to add something else. She didn't.

"That wasn't a problem during the rescue mission with those Suna people... You read the report, Itachi could've taken everybody easily. It's a miracle he didn't!" Naruto jolted away from the wall and walked up to Tsunade's table. "Or are you tryna say he wasn't a danger? See, you're contradicting yourself here. Using me as bait? And you're trying to argue that it would be less dangerous than fighting that guy? Give me a break!" Uzumaki slammed his hands on the table. The Hokage didn't flinch, looking directly into the boy's angry eyes.

"Something's off, even an idiot like me can feel that," he then added more quietly, not knowing that maybe it wasn't necessarily his feeling, rather than that of someone else he had inside of him. "Sasuke comes back to the village, for some reason meeting with you first of all people first – and yes, we saw everything!" The blond boy wasn't trying to be secretive at all. The Fifth noted in her mind that there was a 'we', meaning someone else had seen the exchange as well.

"Stop yelling, will you?" Tsunade sighed, leaning on the back of her chair. She looked surprisingly relaxed considering that Naruto was about to explode right in front of her, and especially given that she could sense Kyubi's chakra boiling inside of him.

"You weren't really fighting Itachi back then, it was just a weakened clone. Or did you forget it already? As for Sasuke…" She looked away, suddenly appearing a bit conflicted. "It's true that we got along in a way. As much as we could have. We have an agreement… Well, not an official one, but that's how I understood what he wants of me. I give him the freedom to protect the village the way he views the best, and help him as much as I find tolerable. In return, he doesn't question my authority as the Hokage, and follows my orders as my subordinate. This was the only way I could force him to stay… You don't know what he originally intended to do, do you?" She looked into the boy's blue eyes, instantly noticing a hint of confusion in the sullen expression. "He wanted to take Itachi's place in Akatsuki to work as a double agent for the sake of Konoha. For the sake of all of us. I found that something I could respect."

Naruto kept looking at her, thinking on what to say next. He let out a sigh and stepped back from the table.

"You're still missing the point, and I'm done trying to get it out of ya." Naruto frowned, looking disappointed. He didn't like how she was speaking to him like to a child. "And Sasuke…," He frowned, comprehending what she'd just told him. "Good job stopping him from doing something so stupid then, I guess," was the only thing he thought of to say. "Thanks for that." The last phrase actually sounded genuine.

However, besides that one thing that sort of clarified Sasuke's reasoning to stay, Naruto didn't feel like he got what he wanted. Seeing as how the Fifth was persistently slightly shifting the subject, and avoiding things to say, he decided it was useless to continue this talk. The teen turned around and headed towards the door.

Tsunade took a deep breath, and as soon as she stopped hearing the sound of his footsteps she undid the genjutsu of secrecy. Of course, she could understand Naruto's frustration. But, she had to admit that Sasuke's plan made sense. If they were lucky enough, they would be able not only to kill Kisame, but also to get some information on the leader. And then…

She narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists so tightly that the bloody-red nails dug into her skin.

Then she would get her revenge.

–**=OwO=**–

"Are you sure you haven't forgotten anything, Hinata-sama?" asked her former bodyguard, standing a few yards behind her back and watching her slightly affectionately as she was gathering various things for the mission.

"Yes, Ko, thank you for your concern." She smiled, suppressing the will to shake her head. This man would probably still treat her like a little girl even when they both would be grey-haired…

"This is going to be a difficult mission, isn't it?" He muttered worriedly more to himself than to his mistress.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell. I'm sorry," she replied automatically for the third time in the last hour, putting a couple of balls of wool into her backpack. Catching Ko's searching look, she spread her arms and giggled nervously. "W-Well, we were told it would involve camping, s-so… I thought I could take something to distract myself… If we have to wait, that is."

"Oh, I see, but… Knitting? Since when?" He smirked at her, raising his eyebrow a bit.

She smiled and shrugged indefinitely, closing the backpack and looking across her room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

"When are you departing?" he asked then.

She glanced at the clock.

"Um… In two hours."

Ko smiled warmly, slowly nodding but still looking a bit anxious.

"Would you like to have a cup of tea together then? As a goodbye."

"Oh…" She blushed a bit, looking at the clock once again and then she pursed her lips nervously. "I–I'm sorry, but – there is something I wanted to do… B-Before we go, that is," stuttered the girl and frowned at her own thoughts.

"Ah… I see," said the man sadly, quickly nodding his head a few times. "Well, I won't be holding you back then. Please take care and come home in one piece, Hinata-sama!"

She chuckled again, covering her mouth with her palm.

"Please don't worry this much, Ko. Nothing is going to happen to me. N-Naruto-kun will be there... and others too."

"The boy, huh?" He frowned at the mention of the jinchūriki, though trying hard to hide his displeasure in front of Hinata. Just like most people in their clan, he wasn't exactly a fan of the knucklehead, to say the least. He didn't know why, but his Tailed Beast was especially hated by the Hyūga historically.

"I–I need to go. I'll come to change and take all this before we leave for the mission, please don't worry. We can have the tea together then!" She smiled at him warmly, making the man smile in return contrary to his troubled mind.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was sitting on the old couch of the guest room, staring blankly at the unplugged TV, lost in his thought. There were just too many things he had to consider, reconsider and comprehend, but what was bothering him the most at the moment was, of course, the upcoming hunt.

They were going to step into the wolf's lair, and all of them could very well die in the next few days. If Madara would be at the hideout the moment they approached it, nobody would be safe. In theory, maybe he had a chance to talk himself out of it by pretending that he came there to hand over Naruto, but not only that it would be very far from the truth, and the Uchiha wasn't even considering such a thing anyway, obviously.

He knew that Kisame was going to die soon, and failure was not an option.

However, even if… no, when they would take his head, they would have to retreat as soon as possible. But, Madara could use space-time ninjutsu. There had to be a way to go around that… He just had to figure it out before they were there.

Roughly tossing his sword off the couch, he got up as the weapon fell on the carpet with a thud. Maybe he just needed some fresh air; the house, despite all his efforts, still wasn't exactly healthy nor pleasant for him to stay in.

The ninja opened the door and walked out, inhaling the fresh air. He looked at the sky – the sun was already leaning towards the horizon, slowly painting the sky in a colourful tessellation of golden and red shades. A beautiful sight he didn't bother to appreciate.

There were roughly two hours before they would depart. Yes, it was wise to move out at night. The fewer people would notice their movement, the smaller was the chance that the information would reach Akatsuki… The boy wasn't quite sure if they were watching him by Madara's order or not, but that definitely wasn't impossible.

He walked around the house, proceeding towards the farthest end of the empty street. Still deep in his thought, he almost missed the familiar lonely girl standing near the ruins of one of the houses he had crushed a few days ago, studying the broken wall with a perplexed sorrowful face. She was biting her lips, and her eyes looked like they were about to water…

'What exactly did she notice there…?' He thought, quickly shaking his head and frowning. No, that was a wrong question. The right would be…

"What are you doing here?" He asked calmly, making her jump on her spot and quickly turn to face him, instantly blushing under his grim gaze.

"Uh–well…" She lowered her eyes as if afraid to look at him, biting her lip again and locking her hands sheepishly in front of her. He noticed that her fingers were shaking as she quickly paled, so she locked them more tightly, still avoiding his stare.

"Well?" He pressed, sounding a bit harsher now. He didn't like sudden visitors. He especially didn't like them when it was someone he found annoying.

"I–You… S-Sasuke-san, you t-told me to c-come and s-see–"

"What the hell are you babbling? Can't you talk in a way that would at least make sense?" He was now sounding downright rough, quickly losing his patience.

Not that he was surprised, but he hadn't expected it either when her face suddenly changed to an expression full of resolve. She raised her head, licked her lips and coughed a bit, lifting her chin in an almost prideful manner – as if trying to show Sasuke that she wasn't afraid of him.

"Y-You told me to come here and see your home myself. And so I did."

He didn't say anything right away, observing her stoic posture with his angry eyes. 'Just what kind of a game are you trying to play here?' He thought darkly, getting reassured that his initial impression of this kunoichi wasn't wrong – he didn't like her at all.

"Fine. You've seen it, so you must be satisfied now. Now get the hell out of here." He turned away, walking back towards his house. All of a sudden, he didn't feel like going for a walk anymore…

"I apologize, Sasuke-san."

He stopped, though not turning around. The young man then closed his eyes and clenched his fists, praying that he would have enough patience not to blast a hole through her chest the next moment.

"What is it?"

"It–it was very foolish of me to say that… N-Now I understand how inconsiderate of me it was. Please, pardon me."

He didn't react right away – her words definitely caught him by surprise.

'Fine, maybe she isn't exactly a lost cause.' The Uchiha still disliked her presence, however; even this overly kind and soft sound of her compassionate voice was irritating to him. He wanted her gone.

"Just go away. I don't need your pity."

"This–this isn't p-pity, I am–!" she began a bit louder, but he was already too far away to hear the ending of the sentence.

Slamming the door shut, Sasuke rubbed his face, eventually beginning to feel the already familiar burning in his eyes. The Hyūga was already gone, or at least she couldn't bother him anymore for sure, but for some reason his anger only kept uprising deep within, making him want to go after her and kill her… And then proceed with a full-blown rampage… To kill everyone he would reach… To ravage the entire village!

The ninja flinched, slowly removing his hands off his eyes and looking at his reflection in the mirror. His Mangekyō Sharingan was now active even though he hadn't activated it willingly…

Something was off. Could it be that his wave of rage was somehow connected to this? As well as most of his mood swings of late…

Sasuke frowned, and his irises slowly turned onyx-black again. He needed someone to ask about this… But who?

–**=OwO=**–

As the evening came, the Hyūga compound was as lively as ever. The training grounds were full of young members of the clan practising their skills, while indoors some of the others studied theory under the guidance of their elders.

The guards escorted a young blonde kunoichi inside the grounds and instructed her to wait near a bench. Ino just shrugged and took a seat, watching overly serious (in her own opinion) kids spar against each other. Fortunately, she didn't get to die off boredom as Neji showed up in just a minute, quickly thanking the guards for the escort and then dismissing them.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice." The jōnin smiled and offered the girl to take a walk outside the compound.

"No worries. At first, I was confused when the messenger instructed me to come here urgently... But I think I know what this might be about," Yamanaka spoke as the pair walked outside the compound, and continued along an empty road.

"Really?" Neji looked at her with slight suspicion. The girl just gave him a nod. "Interesting. I take it we're both thinking about the newest addition to Konoha's shinobi?"

"Yep. Before he went to see Hiashi-sama, he came to speak with us. Well, not exactly us... He wanted to talk to Naruto, but Sakura and I were there as well at the same time. We're the ones who pointed him to seek out you." The girl shrugged and gave Neji a slightly sorry look, though not without a hint of amusement.

The Hyūga sighed. So this was who he had to thank for this whole situation...

The pair continued to walk until they reached one of Konoha's parks. There they went on for a few minutes before stopping at a huge tree. The jōnin performed a few hand seals, slamming his open palm on the ground. A secret passage quickly opened up, and both of them went inside before it closed again, the place outside once again looking like a normal patch of grass near a tree.

"What is this?" asked the kunoichi, looking around a huge hallway that was poorly lit. She suspected that they'd entered one of the few underground facilities that belonged directly to the Hokage. Most of shinobi didn't even know about their existence, and even ANBU were forbidden to be here. In truth, as surprising as it might sound, even someone as insightful as Danzō and his ANBU-Re hadn't found out about all of these places. Most of them were either tightly guarded and hidden by the most loyal to the current Hokage, or completely abandoned like this one.

Ino frowned, observing the place. The hallway was mostly made of stone, with a few very old lamps shining every ten yards or so. They walked past a few other hallways that lead to various empty or locked rooms. About five minutes later they had finally reached their destination. Neji invited the kunoichi to enter one of the rooms.

"Right. Make yourself comfortable here." He closed the door behind them and flicked the light switch. Inside the room were a few sofas, chairs, a table, a drawing board, and a lot of documents stacked everywhere. Scrolls were lying around the floor, and stacks of seals seemed to be scattered around as well. In other words, the room was more than a bit messy. They both took a seat, and Ino gave the Hyūga an expecting look.

"This place belongs to the Hokage," said Neji, confirming her guess. "It's one of the few facilities within the territory of the village that nobody knows about except for Tsunade-sama and her direct subordinates. Meaning, not even the ANBU are aware of its existence. She only told me about it due to the importance of our mission, and it should stay this way. I can't stress enough how important it is to keep this place a secret. The penalty for exposing it would be severe." The jōnin's expression turned too serious even for Neji Hyūga all of a sudden, with him losing the friendly demeanour he had just minutes before. Ino was confused as to what exactly was happening.

"This is a bit unexpected... What is this about? Why have you brought me here?" She asked worriedly, having a bad feeling about the whole thing.

Neji unwrapped one of the scrolls on the table and moved it closer to Ino.

"You have been selected for a top-secret mission under the direct command of the Hokage. I'm sorry that this is being dropped on you out of the blue like this, but we're all Konoha's shinobi, and we have a duty to fulfil. As of this moment, you have been recruited to take part in this mission, and as I said before – if any of this information leaks, there will be consequences. Frankly, I'm afraid we'll all die shortly in this case. Before letting me approach you... Well, they obviously did a lot of research into you. Thus, they found you the most suitable for this. You will find more information in the scroll I showed you. Read it, memorize it, and we'll destroy it." The way Neji spoke and looked at Ino was nothing like she had ever seen from him before. It was almost as if the ninja was possessed by someone else, even though she realized that it wasn't the case.

Ino now looked even more confused but decided not to argue. After a few minutes as she read the scroll's contents time and time again, she finally pushed it away from her, rubbing the temples on her head. The jōnin took the scroll and immediately disposed of it.

"So... Do I even have any time to think about all of this? This is all... Very sudden. I don't know what to say," muttered the girl. She looked worried, confused and even a bit frightened. She was supposed to spy on one of their own? A council member, and the master of ANBU-Re? It felt almost like she ended up in a poorly written spy novel. "Why me? Does this have something to do with Sasuke looking for people before?"

"Yes. Thanks to you initially, I was drafted into this as well. He then asked me to select more people. You're one of the few who will assist me in this mission. I was also thinking about Shikamaru, for he'd be able to organize the information we gather and make sense of it. But for now, there's just two of us. Listen, Ino. This is very important." He crossed his arms on his chest and looked away. "I will provide further details as to what we're going to do. You'll have…," The ninja looked at the dusty clock on the wall, "Three hours to prepare. Starting tonight we will be working on this. Let your relatives know that you'll be gone on an assignment for some time. Keep in mind that nobody in Konoha is to recognize or see you for the duration of this mission."

The Hyūga stood up from the table and walked towards the exit. "I've left a few documents for you to look over. Once you're done, you can leave to prepare. In those papers, you'll find the time and place of our next meeting. I'll be seeing you". With that the teen left, leaving the kunoichi alone in the room. The girl sighed.

"Great... I'm actually starting to regret the fact he came back at all. And what's the meaning of all this…?" She mumbled, giving herself just a few more seconds to collect herself before finally committing to this whole ordeal. "Fine. Let's see where this leads us," she murmured, picking up a few papers to read about the mission's details.

–**=OwO=**–

Evening came, and the pair met up at the designated spot not too far from the ANBU headquarters. The sun was already set, so there were fewer people out on the streets. The two of them were wearing concealing clothes, as well as using transformation jutsu to disguise their looks.

"This isn't your forte, you know..." She laughed, looking at what Neji chose as his disguise. He looked like a teenage girl with ponytails, wearing a light coat and a fashionable hat. The jōnin didn't reply, but she could feel that he was a little bit annoyed.

"Whatever. We follow the plan. I'll be your pillar to lean on once you use your technique. Then we'll analyze together what my eyes see." He said. The girl gave him a nod, and the two instantly disappeared.

Meanwhile, the strike team had already assembled near the main gates of the village. Team Seven, Team Eight, and Team Yamato. They had a quick discussion of their nearest destination and schedule and departed without wasting any more time. Team Eight was moving in the back of the group, Yamato and Sai were in the middle, and Team 7 were the ones leading the stride. They easily manoeuvered across the branches of trees without losing any speed. The atmosphere in the group was a bit... tight. Naruto wasn't his usual cheerful self, which Kakashi and Sakura had noticed, of course. With a quick sign, Hatake motioned Sakura to check on their blond teammate. After a few jumps, she was running just alongside Naruto.

"Are you feeling alright? You look tense... This is unlike you," the medical ninja asked with concern. Uzumaki quickly snapped out of it and gave Sakura a reassuring smile.

"Yeah. All good. Getting ready to kick some ass."

She didn't look convinced at all, but the girl still nodded.

"Good... If there's anything that bothers you, make sure to let us know. This mission depends on our cooperation just like any other." They smiled at each other, and then she jumped back at her spot in their formation.

Throughout the brief conversation, Yamato kept eyeing Naruto, thinking about the strange behaviour the teen displayed. He was thinking if the seal might be damage significantly this time unknown to them all, and if that was the case, then how could that affect the plan. If they wouldn't be able to contain him, would they be forced to kill him in order not to let the jinchūriki get captured by the enemy?

He glanced at Sai who was also staring at Naruto's back, apparently thinking the same. This was no good at all...

"You seem to be oddly into this, Shino." Kiba suddenly spoke in the back of the squad. Aburame didn't respond while Inuzuka continued, "I heard from Hinata that her cousin changed a bit as well all of a sudden. There seems to be a lot of shit going on in the village ever since his return, don't you think?" The teen wasn't even trying to keep a low voice. Shino gave him a short worrying glance from behind the sunglasses, but not saying anything this time either.

Kiba grunted.

"Hmph. Whatever, stay quiet. I'm with Naruto on this one anyway. Shit's weird."

"Hinata," suddenly said Shino as quietly as possible. The girl flinched, not instantly realizing who was calling her – apparently, she had just snapped out of very deep thought. "Formation G."

Her white eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and anxiety – the code he had just spelt meant that he was requesting her to subtly check everyone around for being under a genjutsu. She did as he told her, activating her dōjutsu and remaining silent for a few seconds.

"All clear," she whispered, to which Shino simply nodded without expressing any emotions.

For a while, all three of them didn't say anything. They all realized that Hinata's words could mean only one of two things: either she was under a genjutsu herself, and it had to be so strong that even her eyes couldn't see through it; or that nobody was under control after all. Since the latter option was the most likely one to be true, it could, in turn, mean only that whatever intel Sasuke had brought to the Hokage, it was indeed absolutely crucial.

"Kinda hard to believe it," mumbled Kiba, looking notably more serious and focused than just a minute ago. "We're actually gonna take down an Akatsuki."

"No, they are going to do that. We're only providing them with assistance, that's why," reasoned Shino, still sounding indifferent.

"Yeah, well, like hell they're gonna make it without us! Right, Akamaru?"

The dog barked in response, but somehow it didn't sound as excitedly as they would expect it to sound.

Kiba sighed, looking sideways.

"Honestly, sometimes I kinda wish he didn't return…," he murmured.

Shino didn't react to this either while Hinata lowered her eyes and bit her lip. Although normally she would most certainly tell him not to say things like that, but for some reason, this time she said nothing at all.

* * *

**A/N. Hope you guys like it! Pls**** don't forget that the best way to support the authors is to leave a review! And have a nice day! OwO **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N. Big thanks to everyone for reviews! We love u all! =^w^=**

* * *

**Chapter 5. Closure**

"Right, this looks like a decent place to settle down," said Kakashi, stepping into the relatively tiny glade in the middle of the deep forest. "Hinata, can you see the place clearly enough from here?"

"Y-Yes." The girl nodded vigorously. "It's just one mile away from our current location. It looks like a huge excavation, and I–I can see a skeleton of some huge c-creature. There are also many tunnels and passages going in every direction. I–I cannot see anybody inside, though."

"Good, I guess." Hatake rubbed his neck, turning to Yamato. "We need a comfortable camp with a high-quality camouflage."

"Understood," said the man immediately, clapping his hands.

Multiple wooden pillars and planks showed up directly from the ground, quickly forming a few small huts all over the glade as well as a campfire in the middle of the place with a few small benches around it.

"Shino, I trust you know the seals to conceal our presence."

"Of course, Kakashi-san."

"Very good, do it right away," the grey-haired jōnin then turned to the rest of the squad. "Sai, I want you to observe the area from above for a while. Kiba, you and Akamaru go and scout around on the ground."

"Roger that!" instantly replied two voices at once – one completely indifferent, and the other one full of enthusiasm.

"Sakura, Hinata, please take care of provisions."

"Will do! Let's go, Hinata-chan." Sakura grabbed the white-eyed girl by her sleeve and quickly dragged her towards the woods, throwing a quick stealthy glance at Sasuke and Naruto who were the only ones remaining in front of their former sensei.

"Now, as for my favourite students…," Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "I'd like the two of you to follow me now. We have some details to discuss, and I'd prefer to do this in complete privacy."

Naruto glanced at Sasuke askance, and then looked back Kakashi. He was thinking if this had anything to do with his own previous suspicion about what was suddenly happening in the village. Still deciding not to say anything, the teen merely nodded and started to follow his sensei.

Meanwhile, Sai was already soaring over the high trees of the forest on one of his creations. He looked down to see the three remaining shinobi, not counting Yamato who was working on the camp's buildings, leave somewhere. His past professional curiosity as one of the ANBU-Root almost got the better of him, as the ninja wanted to send a small bird to eavesdrop on them, but in the end, decided against it.

A bit later, the two kunoichi had already managed to gather some berries, fruit, and nuts. Thinking it might not be enough, they decided to go a little bit deeper into the forest to catch some prey.

"S-Sakura... May I ask you about – about Sasuke-san?" Suddenly the Hyūga spoke. Sakura was walking in front of Hinata, but even looking at her back the dark-haired girl noticed how her teammate flinched at the mention of the name.

"Sasuke-kun? Uh, sure... What's up?" The medic turned around and gave Hinata a slightly awkward smile.

She lowered her eyes sheepishly and rubbed the handle of the basket with berries she was carrying in her hands.

"W-Well... I–I swear I don't mean to p-pry, but–but I–I know you've been interested in him... for a long time. So I–I was wondering how you're feeling now that – that he's finally b-back." Clearly very nervous, Hinata kept looking away as she spoke, feeling more than a bit embarrassed to ask such things as she usually never tried to meddle into the private business of other people.

Sakura frowned, turning away to look forward again. She honestly didn't know how to reply, so she took her time to put her thoughts in words.

"Uh… I'm not sure I have an answer to that, Hinata-chan. I'm happy that my former classmate and teammate is back, that's for sure," she uttered quietly, sounding slightly absent as if she were talking to herself rather than to someone else. "As for anything beyond that…," She paused, looking at her feet as they continued walking, "I don't know. I'm surprised about my feelings myself, but... Three years ago I would've had a decisive answer to that without a doubt, but now…," She sighed, "I just don't know. I guess we'll just see?" The rose-haired teen turned around to face Hinata with an unsure smile once again.

"Um… Yes, I suppose..." Hinata pushed a smile herself, deciding that it's best to stop at the moment. She could see that Sakura either didn't really want to discuss this, or she truly was confused herself.

"Why are you suddenly wondering about something like that?" asked Sakura a moment later, not turning away from the bush she was currently examining to determine if the berries were safe to eat or not.

"Um-m." Hinata blushed even more, suddenly afraid to even look at Sakura. She didn't know why she felt so embarrassed but at the same time… It wasn't like she was any guilty nor had done anything shameful. And she wasn't a coward either. So she added: "It's just that – Sasuke-san, he's… He seems intimidating… a little bit."

"Oh, you'll get used to that," Sakura grinned as if she remembered something nostalgic. "He's always been like that, trust me!"

Hinata frowned. She couldn't remember that many things about the boy in his childhood as the two of them had barely ever interacted. Well, to be completely fair, neither of them had probably interacted with anybody a lot. But still, somehow she doubted that he had exactly _always _been this way...

"D-Does it have something to do w-with the massacre?" she asked carefully, "And with his brother?"

The pink-haired kunoichi paused for a moment, frowning as well.

"Well, I suppose it does. I never really gave it much thought," she admitted, sounding a tad baffled.

"I–I see," Hinata nodded more to herself than to Sakura, lowering her head in thought. "H-He seems to be bothered a lot… D-Due to having to live there – where it happened." It sounded so simple, yet so lethal to the feelings pink-haired kunoichi – because she hadn't even wondered how Sasuke really felt about being back. It hadn't even crossed her mind… Maybe she simply guessed that he was displeased as always? Or perhaps she was secretly afraid of the possible answer...

Sakura didn't say anything for a moment, looking at Hinata and studying her. She was still holding the basket in her arms, which seemed to be getting tiring since they stopped. That's why Sakura lay down her prey on the ground, and sat on the nearest log, still staring at Hinata with a mix of amazement and... shame?

The Hyūga caught her gaze and quickly turned away to look at some bushes. She now appeared to be more than a bit embarrassed.

"Well, I suppose his tragic past would be the main reason," began Sakura slowly. "If I recall correctly, when our team was first formed, and we met Kakashi-sensei, he asked us all about our dreams and goals. Sasuke-kun said that he wanted to kill someone..." The girl looked away, remembering this exact moment from a few years ago. "Apparently he just did, he finally killed his brother. Seems like he's avenged his family..." It seemed like Sakura was now more speaking to herself, not noticing that Hinata was now peering at her searchingly, carefully listening to what she was saying.

"I'm not sure why he even went back to live in those old ruins, I thought the infrastructure there was in a breakdown condition. He could've asked Tsunade-sama to give him an apartment, or something like that. So even if it's painful for him to live there... I... don't think anyone is forcing him to do so?" The kunoichi gave the Hyūga a puzzled look.

"I would say, however... That he seems to be – well... Did you notice how Shikamaru changed after that whole ordeal with the Akatsuki member who murdered Asuma-sensei? He changed, and I can't honestly say for the better. But, unlike him, Sasuke-kun… He's still the same as if nothing happened at all. He still has that look in his eyes, as he had back then. Something's not right, but I have no idea what exactly." Sakura sighed heavily, looking at the grass. "I just get a feeling that he's, well... Not finished, you know? That troubles me." Sakura stopped, thinking on the words she said and realizing that maybe she said a little bit too much. _Who knows what Hinata may tell others about this, _she thought worriedly.

"Oh, by the way... How did you even come to that conclusion? About him not liking where he lives. How do you even know that he lives there?" The girl decided to change the topic and stood up as the realization finally came to her. Hinata, who had never shown any interest in anyone besides her teammates and Naruto, was now talking about Sasuke? And more than that – asking rather intimate things about him? "I don't want to sound rude, but I never thought _you_ of all people would care about him," Haruno added, trying not to let the note of jealousy slip into her voice.

Hinata frowned. It indeed sounded rude, but then again, she realized that Sakura had a point – she had rarely expressed open concern for anybody. And besides, the Hyūga didn't want her friend to get the wrong idea about the cause of her interest. She definitely wasn't curious about Sasuke Uchiha for an... indecent reason. On the contrary, she felt quite uneasy around him…

"W-We accidentally bumped into each other the other day. And then I happened to pass by that place, and we–we met again, but…," she babbled, hating the fact that she had to lie even if a little bit. But what choice did she have? Even now Hinata wasn't even sure why she'd decided to go to those ruins in the first place. She would never be able to explain that to someone else, especially to the Uchiha's teammate who – as far as Hinata knew – had strong romantic feelings for him.

"Uh-huh..." Sakura, who was more socially apt than the other kunoichi, quickly picked up on this suspicious behaviour. Hinata stopped talking, looking extremely uncomfortable. And no matter how much time Sakura gave her to continue, it seemed that she needed to get a little push.

"Listen, Hinata. You have nothing to worry about. You obviously want to relieve something off your chest, and besides your cousin, I imagine I would be the next best thing. Especially if it concerns one of my teammates," Sakura spoke calmly, with a friendly tone. She obviously didn't hold any negative feelings towards the Hyūga; in fact, she was just curious now as to what this was all about.

"I remember Kakashi-sensei sending Sasuke-kun to meet with Hiashi-sama so I'm guessing that's when you bumped into him? Did he say something that bothers you now? You said you were also walking past that place..." Sakura stopped. There was no reason for anybody – let alone the Hyūga clan's heir – to go anywhere near the old Uchiha compound. That place was long abandoned, and there was nothing close to it that was of use to any Konoha civilian, or shinobi. But Haruno decided to not mention that fact. "What happened then?" she asked.

No matter what Sakura said and how friendly she seemed, Hinata had a strong feeling that she shouldn't tell her the entire truth. How would it sound anyway? That he had literally invited her to come to his home? Because that's what essentially had happened, even though he'd obviously been ironical about that. So the Hyūga tried her best to sound as natural as possible as she slowly muttered:

"W-Well… I welcomed him b-back to the village, and asked him if it felt nice to be home again… H-He then said that – well, b-basically, that it didn't feel so nice… So I decided to take a peek," she finished the sentence almost whispering and blushed, still not looking at her friend. It wasn't exactly a lie; in fact, from a certain point of view, that was also exactly what had happened. Because curiosity was indeed a significant part of her motivation back then.

The biggest part, however, was her own stubbornness combined with Sasuke's taunt. But _that_ she would never admit, of course.

"I–I went to that place b-before we all departed for this mission. He–he wasn't happy to see me there," she added firmly as it was a completely truthful statement, thus finishing the story and staring at the sky thoughtfully. The girl then decided to try to lure the conversation elsewhere, not wanting Sakura to get anything else out of her.

"Y-You said that it feels like he isn't done with his quest yet… B-but, hasn't it been confirmed that he did it? That he killed – killed his b-brother," she stuttered more than usual, for such a thing was just too horrible to spell for her. She could never imagine slaying a relative, let alone her own sibling.

Sakura pursed her lips and hemmed.

"That's not exactly what I meant. Itachi is dead, that's true. What I was talking about, is that it feels like it didn't result in the way Sasuke-kun wanted. So either there are more targets to get rid of now, or..." She didn't finish the sentence, still thinking about what Hinata told her about her meeting with Sasuke.

Besides, implying that he might actually regret killing Itachi would a completely ridiculous assumption… Wouldn't it?

"Anyway... I think we've wasted enough time here." The kunoichi picked up the prey and put a quick smile on her face. "Let's get back to the camp. As for your small encounter with Sasuke-kun, well... He was always an enigma to me, no matter how hard I tried to solve him. To be completely honest, I don't…," She lowered her eyes as if afraid say what she was about to say, but then continued nonetheless, "I don't think I still want to after all these years. So not sure if I would be of help to you in this case." She gave the Hyūga a faint smile as if Haruno was upset at herself for saying such things. The girl then turned around and started walking. "Perhaps Ino is right..." she muttered to herself, thinking that her ex-rival had actually moved on a long time ago.

Hinata finally raised her head, staring at Sakura in a bit of awe for a few moments. What she had just said… Didn't it mean that her feelings for her teammate had diminished over these years…?

"I–I see," murmured the Hyūga, picking her own pack of herbs and mushrooms and striding after her.

For as long as Hinata could remember, Sakura and Ino had always chased Sasuke Uchiha like there was no tomorrow. They'd obviously been deep in love with him – probably the same way she was in love with Naruto herself. But, hearing that Sakura's feelings had changed by now, and knowing that Ino's had too... It made the girl wonder for the first time in her life if her own would last forever. Maybe she should gather all her courage and confess at last? Before it would be too late…

She activated her Byakugan, almost instantly finding Naruto – he was still standing in front of Kakashi not far away from the camp, right next to Sasuke, and they were obviously discussing something important as all the three of them had very serious expressions.

Hinata's gaze stopped at the Uchiha for a moment, and she frowned – something she often did lately whenever this boy was concerned. While she'd never really paid any attention to him before, nowadays she did though the girl couldn't really say why.

But, one thing she realized clearly – she certainly disliked the Uchiha...

Unbeknownst to the two of them, a dark shapeless figure with dim yellow eyes was watching them from the nearest bush, listening to their every word.

"_**Found them,**_" it growled quietly, disappearing into the ground the next second.

**-=OwO=-**

"So that's basically our thoughts, Naruto," finished Kakashi, leaning on the nearest tree and eyeing his student attentively. "Tsunade-sama believes that if we manage to take down Kisame now – combined with the fact that Sasuke has already killed Deidara and Itachi; Sakura got rid of Sasori; Shikamaru took care of Hidan and you finished off Kakuzu – they will only have four members left. Considering that Kisame is one of the strongest, our surprise attack – in case if it succeeds – is going to cripple their organization. If we also get a chance to infiltrate their hideout afterwards, we'd be able to find some intel on the remaining ones. Then it would be only a matter of time until we kill the rest including Pain," he said pointedly, knowing that Naruto had to feel the urge for revenge.

The Uzumaki nodded, thinking about what his sensei was saying. He looked at the side, remembering his previous conversation with grandma Tsunade, which made the teen's expression darken a bit.

"That's all cool, but it doesn't match with what she said. The way you put it – is that I'll be there for the fight and the infiltration. That's not how grandma Tsunade feels. So how exactly is it gonna go down?" The ninja crossed his arms on his chest. Of course, he knew they would be careful due to him being a jinchūriki, but he was also ready to act on his own if necessary. He just wanted to know Kakashi's take on this.

"Also, didn't that toad geezer say that this Pain guy used to be Jiraiya's student as well? And that he also possessed some weird power. What if he's there when we go inside after dealing with Kisame? Seems like a lot of stuff to have on our hands all at the same time."

Kakashi nodded.

"As far as we know, Pain doesn't possess space-time ninjutsu. According to Hinata, he's not there right now; also according to Fukasaku-sama, Pain currently resides in Amegakure which is very far away from here. We obviously won't try to sneak in if he happens to be inside at the time. But, there's no chance that he'll come here so quickly, and if he somehow does, we just retreat," said the man.

"Madara does have space-time ninjutsu, though," said Sasuke. "He might bring this Pain guy right to us. What are we gonna do in this case? The way you make it sound, we won't be able to match him."

"Well, that's a tricky one," drawled Kakashi thoughtfully, looking at the camp. "I honestly don't have an answer. This whole operation is a huge gamble, but a worthy one. In case if Madara shows up, I'll try to take care of him with my Mangekyō Sharingan. If he brings Pain along, however… I guess we're done for."

Naruto threw a disappointed look at him, stretching his face too much.

"Meh. You're reassuring as ever, Kakashi-sensei," the ninja muttered with a weak grin. "But... The last time you used your new Sharingan, you got taken out for a long time. You'd become a liability fast in that case." The teen smirked, clasping his hands behind his head. "Oh, by the way, Sasuke! Do you have space-time ninjutsu as well? Seems like this Madara guy and Kakashi-sensei have got it through their eyes. Do all Uchihas possess it?" He turned to look at his friend with genuine curiosity.

Sasuke didn't reply right away and frowned. As unexpected as it was, Naruto totally had a point there. Although he wasn't sure about the capabilities of his Mangekyō Sharingan yet, somehow he felt like he didn't have it… And neither had Itachi.

"No, or at least I don't know about it yet. I almost haven't used these eyes at all," he said quietly and looked at Kakashi who gazed back, appearing to be wondering. "Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you about it. You have awakened it somehow, right?" The elder shinobi nodded in confirmation. "Ever since I awakened mine, I've been feeling odd. Something isn't right."

"What exactly do you mean?" asked Kakashi, now sounding concerned. Meanwhile, Naruto frowned, staring at Sasuke thoughtfully. Not only that it was unusual (though pleasant, of course) to hear him saying things sincerely, but what the Uchiha had just mentioned was also very true. He _had_ been odd for sure, and that was another thing that constantly made Naruto feel uneasy lately.

"I… sometimes, I'm having random flashes of rage. My emotions suddenly get out of control, and I want to hurt somebody. Badly. It keeps intensifying until I either isolate myself completely or somehow manage to take control over this. Have you experienced anything similar?" asked the Uchiha, suspecting that it could have something to do with the new Sharingan's special chakra.

Naruto looked troubled by his words but didn't say anything. This one was another thing he could totally relate to due to his tenant…

Kakashi, however, seemed a bit dumbfounded. To him, it sounded like a mix of hormones and a teenage phase. He was glad that behind the mask his expression wasn't visible. But, the jōnin quickly dismissed these thoughts. It could be something serious too; Sasuke wasn't somebody to openly share his concerns without a reason.

"Hm-m. Not really, no. To be honest, I've never heard of anything similar when it came to members of your clan when I was younger. Perhaps it doesn't necessarily have to do with the Sharingan?" The man suggested. "We do know that the dōjutsu activates under severe stress, and emotional pressure is a factor. Perhaps there's some kind of a similar setback for activating Mangekyō Sharingan, but that's just speculation. As I said, I haven't experienced anything like that. However, any time I use my Mangekyo Sharingan – my eyesight gets worse afterwards, to the point where it takes a lot of time to recover. I also feel like it gets worse after every use, so I don't use it unless there's no other way," Kakashi finally finished, looking at Sasuke thoughtfully.

The younger ninja looked away.

"Mine hasn't got any worse yet, but I only used it a couple of times so far. Still, can you take a look at the chakra in my eyes and my head when I activate it? I need to be sure if it's not something that could cloud my mind at an important moment," he said, suppressing the desire to wince in irritation. He didn't like to admit his weakness to anybody, but his rational side told him that Kakashi of all people – especially having an eye like that himself – could tell if something was actually wrong. And because Sasuke's field of vision only covered 180 degrees, he was unable to check it himself...

Kakashi seemed to be taken by surprise with that request but nodded in agreement nonetheless. Under the careful gazes of his sensei and Naruto, the Uchiha closed his eyes, activating his Sharingan, and then opened them, the pattern quickly changing to the Mangekyō. He immediately felt himself getting colder, and although he didn't feel any anger yet, he could already say that something began to slowly affect his emotions right away.

Just as Sasuke activated his eyes, Kakashi looked closely at his former student with his own sole Sharingan, watching as the pattern changed. Naruto was observing as well, peering at his friend with awe and curiosity, but at the same time, he felt a strange tingling inside of him. Watching Sasuke use his Mangekyō Sharingan jolted the Tailed Beast inside of the Uzumaki. Due to the seal, the fox couldn't do anything, but his emotions and feelings were inadvertently being transferred to his host, which made Naruto feel strange in a bad way.

"Interesting..." Kakashi whispered, watching the chakra flow in Uchiha's upper body closely. "Yeah, the chakra does seem different. The way it flows is also not something you'd see with the normal Sharingan," he murmured while still studying Sasuke.

"The way it affects the rest of your chakra flow, as well as your brain, is... unusual. I really have no intimate knowledge about your clan's kekkei genkai, unfortunately. So I'm afraid to say something that might later prove to be false. But it gives me the feeling that something is missing. The way it spreads is hectic, and the colour... It feels like it's overflowing, with a lot of the energy being used needlessly. Almost like it should be focused, but some reason it cannot focus." Kakashi backed away from staring at Sasuke, giving himself some time to think.

"Your chakra control seems all in all fine, though. But, like I already said, personally I don't experience anything from what you described and what I can see. Then again, I'm not an Uchiha." Kakashi paused once again, thinking what would be the best course of action from this point onwards.

Having an enraged bull emerge in the middle of a fight wouldn't be beneficial to them. This sort of thing should've been mentioned before the mission had started; now Sasuke became a wild card.

"How long can you fight using these eyes while still maintaining rational thought?" He suddenly asked. "And how much do the drawbacks affect you after you use new abilities?"

"I don't know," replied Sasuke honestly, deactivating his eyes. "I haven't tried it in a battle yet. Just a couple times to cast genjutsu."

He didn't need to know what they thought to realize that what Kakashi had just told him was disturbing. He could feel it himself that something was wrong with his chakra flow, or rather with the way it affected him whenever he tried to use his new power. And since the copycat himself claimed to have never experienced anything like that...

Then again, Itachi hadn't shown a sign of losing his sanity either… Maybe something was wrong with his eyes in particular? In that case, he probably should avoid using that dōjutsu until the whole matter would get cleared up. Not that he'd planned something differently – he knew that using these eyes was dangerous anyway. He couldn't afford to get blind anytime soon. Albeit, it was probably inevitable if what Madara had told him was true. And yet…

Sasuke almost flinched as the belated realization hit him. There _was_ a cure for blindness, at least according to Madara's words. But, what if that same cure would also stop this chakra flow problem too?

He glared at the campfire that had just been ignited, the two girls, Shino and Yamato beginning to sort out various food they'd gathered.

It seemed like he had no choice but to claim Itachi's eyes after all...

**-=OwO=-**

A few hours later it was already completely dark in the camp. Almost everyone was sleeping within their newly-built huts, but Sasuke didn't feel like resting at all. That's why he had volunteered to take a double shift – sitting alone near the campfire made him able to focus on his thoughts, viewing things that kept bothering him more clearly.

As he heard a noise breaking through the silence of the night, his gaze quickly slid to the side. Unfortunately, it looked like his solitude would end shortly as Sakura showed up from a wooden building, yawning and approaching his bench. It was her turn to watch the area.

The girl hesitated for a moment, although more so because she didn't want to make an awkward scene rather than due to being afraid. She sighed, taking a seat at the other end of the bench. She was carrying a couple of bottles with water. She pushed one towards Sasuke without looking at him, trying to adjust her eyes to the light of the campfire.

"You…," she yawned once again, "Should get some rest. Wouldn't want you to be tired in case the enemy attacks us first," she finished the sentence and stopped, looking at the campfire. The Uchiha, however, didn't move. In its own bizarre way, it was reminding her of the night when Sasuke had left the village. _How foolish I must've looked to him back then…,_ the girl thought.

The atmosphere around was intense, or at least so it seemed to her. As if it was a break-up long time coming, even though these two had never been in a relationship to begin with.

The kunoichi looked at him, her facial expression still being a tired one after a short sleep.

"I don't feel like sleeping," finally uttered Sasuke, sounding soft enough to surprise even himself. He didn't touch the water, but only because he didn't feel like eating or drinking anything right now. "You should rather worry about the rest of them being exposed to an enemy while they're asleep."

Of course, he wasn't afraid of a potential enemy – his reason for staying up this late lay elsewhere. Still, he didn't want to get any unnecessary care from Sakura, nor from anybody else for that matter. "A half of them is just a motley crew," he lowkey complained, referring mostly to Team Eight and Sai, although he wasn't sure about Sakura's own combat capabilities either.

"You really haven't changed, have you?" She gave him a tired smile and looked at the campfire again. "Well... Since you're supposed to be on guard, watching the others, I would be worried more about you after all. Since we're putting our lives in your hands while everyone's sleeping, that is. That's teamwork for ya," she said calmly, with a bit of humour in her tone. Obviously, she knew that Sasuke was never good at teamwork. She presumed that since he'd left Konoha, he must have relied only on himself which probably was what further worsened his social skills. Everybody noticed that.

"Like I said you're the same, but I can also see that you've become truly independent. It seems you were right about seeking power somewhere outside Konoha. It looks like you're rather comfortable with whom you've become," the rose-haired girl continued. There was no negativity in her voice, but she also didn't sound like a love-struck fool she had used to be back during their academy years. It surprised herself, but Sakura managed to sound neutral, almost the same way she would speak with any other shinobi. "I'm glad you're back, though. When you left, I did a very selfish thing... Forcing Naruto to make such a stupid promise..." The girl felt like she was starting to talk too much, but at this point, she didn't care anymore. She felt like this was the moment everything needed to be said, and finally left in peace… possibly opening the way for a new beginning.

"But, you came back on your own, and now that idiot doesn't need to worry about keeping any promises to me. And since you're here with us now... You should honestly get some rest, and also need to get used to people caring for you. It's not a bad thing, and you can still try to play solo if that's how you feel, but the truth is you're no longer working alone... And that comes with its own perks and benefits. Although I imagine, you think of such things as nuisances." She giggled.

He didn't react, staring blankly at the flames dancing in front of them.

"You know, Sasuke-k... Sasuke. I'm sure my feelings towards you were never mutual, and as time went by... It probably became even more so. Ino has long forgotten about you, by the way, ha-ha. Looks like she's the smarter one after all..." It seemed like Sakura was talking more to herself now, while her teammate was just quietly sitting on the other end of the bench, listening without saying anything at all.

"I couldn't do that for a long time. But eventually... I think... I moved on as well. I only came to this realization today, would you imagine? It's been bugging me for a long time already, but it seems only today I managed to admit it to myself." She paused, thinking once again about her talk with Hinata earlier.

Wasn't it ironic? The person she had always believed to be the love of her life was sitting right next to her, but she felt nothing. Of course, she was more than happy to have her former teammate and her friend back in Konoha, but beyond that... there was nothing. "I'm sorry I'm dropping this on you all of sudden. And I realize you probably don't care, like always. But, well... maybe you'll feel a bit less irritated by my presence from now on at least." She smiled, poking fun at herself once more. The conversation paused again, this time for a few long minutes while both of them were silently watching the fire in front of them.

"I'm sorry for everything that happened to you. I don't believe I ever said that. I don't think I've ever truly realized what your life was like, and I'm sorry for that too. Even that buffoon seems to have understood you far better than I, even though he always tried to defeat you, or whatever..." Sakura chuckled. "For what it's worth, I'm really sorry for being so ignorant to your pain. Although yesterday cannot be changed, we can still pave our way into tomorrow, and once again I'm really happy you decided to do it as a Konoha shinobi. I know you probably cringe at the thought, but you have all of us to help you with that if needed." She took a deep breath and sighed. "Yep. I guess there was a lot of stuff I needed to lay off my chest. Hopefully, it won't burden you as much as my behaviour a few years ago." She smiled to herself once again, taking a sip of water from her bottle.

For a long while, Sasuke didn't say anything. He looked like he kept spacing out, seemingly somewhere very far away in his thought. At some point it even made Sakura wonder if he heard her at all, but just when she was about to let out a sad sigh and complain, he finally opened his mouth:

"I don't seek help from any of you. I don't seek understanding or love either. I returned for a purpose, and that purpose is the sole reason why I am here right now. It has nothing to do with any of you guys," he said calmly, realizing that his words could probably hurt Sakura, but since she'd apparently decided to go for a sincere conversation, he wished to do the same. "I suppose it's good that you've overcome your problem with me. And I…"

He paused. He couldn't say the truth which was the fact that her mentioning some kind of understanding his pain had actually made him boil with anger deep inside. Of course, none of them could ever understand anything about his pain, simply because they didn't know everything he knew. Still, he could acknowledge the fact that she was probably saying it out of a genuine desire to befriend him and not out of selfishness, for the first time in their lives.

"...I appreciate your attempt but don't get delusional. You don't and can't really understand me. No one can," he said with the tiniest bit of sorrow in his voice. '_Because nobody is allowed to know the truth about Itachi…,' _he added in his mind, but said instead:

"What I want you and Naruto to understand is that I don't want to be loved, nor welcomed, nor to be happy back home. None of it is any relevant to me right now. My goal is to protect the village at all costs, that's all. Besides," Sakura could swear that she saw something that seemed like a barely notable sad smile on his lips. "I don't think I'll ever be able to return any of these feelings anyway. Be it friendship, or love… or even hatred."  
_  
Because their feelings don't matter at all. And neither do mine..._

Sakura gazed at him with a deep concern for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and looking away again. At least she was now dead sure that this was indeed Sasuke and not someone impersonating him or anything like that. But this also sort of confirmed her speculation that she had mentioned to Hinata. Sasuke hadn't changed at all contrary to what was to be expected after killing his brother, seemingly the source of his unending hatred and pain. It should've given him at least some solace, but it clearly didn't.

And since Itachi was now gone, and Sasuke was still the same, that just logically meant that there had to be something else. Something he wasn't willing to tell...

"I see," she said after a bit of thought. "Well, we're not static beings, so anything can happen. The way you speak reminds me of Naruto, actually. I'm pretty sure he felt the same way, although because of different circumstances, and now look at him... But, I respect your position, regardless of what I think is best, so I guess we'll leave it as it is then." The kunoichi was now fully awake, happy that this little exchange was happening. It felt like the longest conversation she'd ever had with Sasuke. "Thank you for listening to me. And thank you for being honest as well... Or at least I hope you're honest, ha-ha!" she paused once again, trying to enjoy the relieving moment of peace at least a little.

"Since this is how you feel at the moment, I'll just roll with it," she continued, "Eventually things may change, and we'll continue on from there. So for now... Go to sleep. Otherwise, Kakashi-sensei is going to complain to me in the morning about this, since I was supposed to relieve you of duty. Besides, you've had your time alone with your thoughts. Now it's my turn..." The kunoichi said in a bit of a whiny manner, still with a smile on her face. Although it wasn't necessarily a happy smile, more like a bittersweet one. The girl was finally content. Of course, this wasn't exactly what she wanted, but it was still some progress. No matter what the ninja told her, no matter how he felt at the moment, it might still change in the future, and she was okay with that. Throughout the whole conversation, he didn't speak to her in a negative way or anything like that. Even though she felt he didn't think the same, to her it was really important as it helped her remove some weight off her shoulders at long last.

In turn, though Sasuke didn't want to admit it, hearing Sakura's words made him feel… strangely relieved. Of course, it didn't help any of his true concerns that were tormenting him from the inside, nor did it calm down the storm in his soul he'd been desperately suppressing until now. And yet…

All of a sudden, he didn't feel like resisting his old teammate anymore. He grabbed the bottle of water and got up, not looking at the girl.

"Fine. I'll go take a nap." He walked towards the hut that was meant for him and Naruto, suddenly realizing that she was actually right – he felt pretty tired and some rest could definitely help him. That's why – and he would refuse to acknowledge any other reason – he stopped near the entrance, slightly turning his head to the left but still not facing the jade-eyed girl.

"Thank you."

He didn't need to look at her to know that she was now smiling very brightly.

**-=OwO=-**

"_**The kids are asleep," **_growled the dark creature, emerging behind the masked man.

"Good. I guess it's time we claim the Nine-Tails then," he replied, turning to face Black Zetsu.

"Sasuke is with them. And so is Kakashi Hatake as well as the Wood Release user. Are you sure you can take all of them?" asked the white half slowly.

"I won't need to face them," the man smirked, stepping towards the Gedo Statue. "Kisame, are you ready?"

"More than ever. Though, isn't it going to take some time since there are only three of us?" asked the amphibious shinobi, looking at the giant monstrosity curiously.

"No, that only goes for the extraction ritual. The sealing is almost instantaneous." He quickly moved his hands, forming a few seals which made the statue move, slowly opening its maw. "You will be the first member to become a jinchūriki for our sake. Originally I didn't plan to do this so soon, but since Sasuke has apparently betrayed us…"

"Fair enough," Kisame chuckled, taking his Samehada away. "It's an honour to serve our cause, Obito-san." 

* * *

**A/N. P****lease don't forget to let us know what u guys think! ^w^ Until next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys! UwU I was kinda sick and then had to catch up with studies and all that, but now we're back! Hope yall enjoy it ^^  
And of course, thank you so much for the support!**

* * *

**Chapter 6. ****Omnivorous**

When almost everyone in the camp was already long asleep, rain began pouring, getting stronger and stronger after midnight. Because of this Sai had to stop his aerial patrol, and rest in one of the huts too since it was getting difficult to get a decent view.

Currently, it was Shino's turn to watch over the camp. He didn't really mind to sit under the rain since he always wore a hood anyway. He used a swarm of insects that thrive in the water to spread them out around the camp so that he would be instantly warned if someone trespassed the area. For a while, it was quiet with only the noise of the rain steadily dropping on the wooden huts. The tranquillizing rhythmic sound was the only thing keeping the shinobi company. He still had an hour and a half to stand on the watch, thinking on many things silently.

What exactly was Hokage's plan behind this mission? Was it wise to send out a team like theirs? At least a half of them were absolutely no match for an Akatsuki member. Unlike his loud friend and teammate, Shino wasn't any delusional about their capabilities. He knew that right now the only people who could do something against Kisame would be Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and maybe Sakura. Yamato was a wild card since Aburame knew almost nothing about his prowess, but the rest of them…

Tsunade Senju was a wise woman, so she had to realize this too. There just had to be some explanation to this, something none of them was aware of. A missing link in the plan currently kept secret… By who? Kakashi? Or the Uchiha...?

Occupied by these slightly disturbing thoughts, Shino belatedly noticed that the rain was getting more intense with each minute. It finally hit him that something wasn't right when as the water started to slowly flood the territory around. Unfortunately, Yamato hadn't thought of building up any fortifications for this kind of a situation. And Shino didn't know any specific Earth Release technique that would help right now as well.

As it was becoming more and more alarming, the Aburame ninja kept checking in with the insects he used to see if someone was approaching. The noise from the rain was becoming too loud, cancelling anything the shinobi could hear outside of the camp's radius. Visibility was almost non-existent at the moment due to the absence of a light source, and the thick walls of water…

_Something's not right. This weather is more intense than whatever rain is produced in the Land of Water…, _he thought, taking a combat stance. He called his insects to come back, but none answered. The shinobi gasped then as the realization finally got him.

Water...!

"Everyone!" he yelled out. "Get—"

Shino couldn't finish the sentence as he felt a huge wave strike him against a wall of the hut he was standing near. The walls broke, with the water flooding its insides. The hut belonged to Sai and Yamato, who immediately jumped out of the way, catching Shino at the same time. Everybody else stormed out of their shelters but were quickly met with multiple waves of water knocking them down.

"What the fuck is this?!" Kiba shouted as he left the hut, and quickly ended up with water up to his waist as if he had just walked into a pond. "Akamaru!" The dog quickly jumped to the nearby rock to allow his master to mount him, and the pair escaped to the roof of one of the huts.

"Hinata-chan! Are you okay?!" Sakura helped her friend get out of the hut, and jump on the roof of it. The indigo-haired kunoichi was still coughing, trying to catch her breath. The water immediately flooded their hut almost up to the ceiling, catching them by surprise.

"Y-Yes... Thank you..."

"Naruto, get on the roofs!" the leader of the group ordered him, helping the jinchūriki get out of the ruined tiny house. The blond ninja immediately tried to jump on the one closest to him. "Doton: Tajū Doryūheki!" Kakashi slammed his palms into the small open patch of earth that was still visible. Immediately walls emerged to block the flood around the camp.

The water started receding, but before the final wall could emerge from the ground, the previous ones got instantly destroyed by a huge bandaged sword.

Of course, it was Kisame Hoshigaki. The hunters had just become the prey...

Before he could do anything else, Kakashi got swiped away by the new waves that broke into the camp through the hole in the wall.

"Now, now… What do we have here?" calmly drawled Kisame as he caught the blond ninja by the collar before he reached the nearest roof. The swordsman's weapon started to vibrate... and to growl. Hoshigaki glanced at the sword with a grin. "Hnh... Yes. This one has a lot of chakra to spare. How nice of you to come all the way out here by your own volition. Spared me the time it would take to travel to Konoha." He chuckled. The situation was becoming critical. The rain kept pouring hard, almost completely negating the field of vision for everyone around. The flood was also increasing in the camp, now almost completely covering the houses while constantly incoming waves of water the confused ninjas from doing anything.

"You bastard!" Naruto tried to punch him, but it was effortlessly blocked. Though, to Kisame's surprise, the boy then disappeared with a poof, leaving his grip empty.

"That was predictable," The nukenin smirked, putting his sword on his shoulder almost lazily. "I guess I will end you all quickly. Then Sasuke-kun and I can go and rest at the hideout… huh?" He glanced at the Uchiha who was already standing on one of the roofs, his Sharingan activated and directed at the enemy.

"For a walking filet, you sure talk a lot," he muttered, taking out his own sword.

"Oh?" Kisame cocked his head a bit, his mouth twisting in a wide mocking grin. "And here I thought you would take Itachi-san's place among us. I guess you won't live up to his expectations after all…"

The swords clashed, while others regrouped, trying to get higher to avoid the uprising water. Sakura and Hinata were standing together on a thick branch a dozen yards away from the enemy; Kakashi was just next to Sasuke as planned; Kiba and Shino were nowhere to be seen, most likely preparing a surprise attack, and Sai was already high in the air together with Yamato.

"Don't talk about Itachi, scum," Sasuke hissed, narrowing his eyes. He knew that he shouldn't activate Mangekyō Sharingan without a crucial necessity, but the man's taunt had worked as intended — he was feeling the overwhelming rage growing inside.

"Well, there's not much we can do aside from talking. You're all dead anyway," the rogue ninja giggled disgustingly, looking around himself. "Your little fox has been captured after all."

"Captured?!" Kakashi gasped, looking around. "Hinata! Where's Naruto?"

The girl's white eyes widened; it took her just a couple of seconds to scan through the camp with her dojutsu, and to realize that the boy was…

Nowhere to be found.

"H-He—he's g-gone…!"

"What?!" Kakashi's eyes widened in fear.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and jumped backwards.

'_Madara…'_

"So what are you gonna do now, kids? Looks like the trap you tried to prepare just backfired…"

The rain was now quickly stopping while the waves of water continued to rage on the ground, forcing everybody to stay somewhere high enough to avoid the storm.

"Well? I've been bored of late, so I'm giving you odds here. You can think of something before you attack. How about two minutes?" Kisame laughed, resting Samehada on his shoulder. The rain eventually stopped so Sai along with Yamato managed to disappear somewhere above the trees.

"Yamato? C—" Yamato straightened his earpiece, trying to her what Kakashi was saying. The reception was awful. It seemed the microphones and headphones had gotten damaged by the initial attack. "...s gone. Repeat. Naruto—"

He touched his microphone to speak with Hatake.

"Kakashi-san, can you repeat? I couldn't hear you."

"Naruto... Gone... for him... Search... I'm—" The man felt horror creeping in his heart, but quickly got a hold of himself and turned to the boy next to him.

"Sai! Naruto disappeared from the camp, we need to find him. I might be able to catch a trace of his chakra, but we need to be somewhere close to his location."

"We cannot leave. We're their support group," Sai argued, still flying around above the camp.

"They have Sakura, as well as Team Eight. They'll handle things somehow. If Naruto was indeed taken by the enemy, then we've already failed this mission. Remember, _our_ objective is to bring everyone alive back to Konoha," said Yamato. Sai glanced at him and slowly nodded, and a few seconds later dived in a different direction away from the camp.

At the same moment, Shino and Kiba were hiding in one of the trees relatively far away from the camp, but still close enough to see them even despite the darkness of the night.

"We need Hinata to complete our formations. I don't think we can rely just on brute force against this guy," Kiba muttered, observing all the commotion at the camp.

"Hm. The strike team is still there, and it seems Sasuke's already engaged the enemy. However, I can't find Naruto with my insects. I found everybody, but it seems-" Shino didn't finish the sentence. Kiba looked at him and frowned.

"I have no idea how to fight together with Sasuke. I can kinda understand Kakashi's movements, but Sasuke? He'll definitely not hesitate to cut me with that sword of his along with this prick if needed. We gotta be careful with our attack."

"Right... For now, let's wait for a perfect opportunity to assist Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei."

Meanwhile, the Uchiha jumped away from Kisame.

"Kakashi," said Sasuke carefully, trying to calm down. "He's all about Water Release."

"Right," muttered the elder ninja, gripping his kunai more tightly. "We can't use Lightning chakra here."

"Why the hell not?!" asked the teen irritably.

"Have you seen his chakra control? He could easily redirect it at one of our guys."

"Hn," the Uchiha narrowed his eyes. "What a nuisance… Should've come here alone."

"One minute left. I'm getting bored, you know," drawled Kisame pretentiously, suppressing a bloodthirsty grin. "I'd gladly duel Sasuke-kun if you all prefer to stay away and watch. An opponent who killed Itachi-san should be an interesting one for sure."

"K-Kakashi-san! Y-Your feet...!" yelled Hinata, making the grey-haired ninja look down and gasp — tentacle-shaped water wrapped around his legs the same moment, throwing him down off the hut.

"...I lied about that minute, by the way." Kisame laughed viciously, charging at the white-eyed girl with his giant sword directed at her neck.

"Shannaro!" All of a sudden Samehada received an awfully strong punch that almost took the weapon out of the nukenin's hand, making him change his trajectory and land on the nearest stub instead.

"Oh?" He drawled with amusement, looking at Sakura who was now covering Hinata with her back. "Impressive strength, girl. Aren't you the one who took down that prick Sasori?"

"Will gladly add you to my score!" said Sakura and gulped. Despite the cocky attitude, she was frankly afraid of the ninja...

Meanwhile, behind Kisame's back, Sasuke was quickly weaving hand seals. He knew that the move he was about to make was very dangerous, but he also realized that there was hardly any other choice. With nature itself being their opponent's support, there wasn't much they could do. The only thing that might work would be turning said nature _against_ Hoshikagi…

"_**Fire Release: **__**Great Fire Annihilation!" **_A tremendously broad and tall wave of fire spread out of his mouth, instantly covering every single tree around and consuming a significant square of the forest.

"Sasuke! What on earth are you doing?!" shouted out Kakashi, jumping towards Sakura and Hinata who yelped simultaneously as the flames were closing in on them.

"Getting rid of all that water, what else?" muttered the panting teen darkly — the technique had just consumed a huge part of his chakra, so he knew he had to be extra careful from now on. At the same time, he wasn't removing his eyes off Kisame. It was a shame that Yamato had apparently left the battlefield — if only that man used his Wood Release here and now to trap Kisame with it, the fish would be fried alive...

"What the hell?!" cried Kiba as he was riding Akamaru trying to escape the flames that quickly devoured their camp and the surrounding area. As soon as he found a relatively safe spot, Kiba looked around. His teammate wasn't far behind him.

"That piece of shit! I knew he would be a hazard!" The Inuzuka kept screaming in panic. He was beyond angry, looking at the slightly burned fur on Akamaru. It wasn't something significant, but even this sort of damage was to his pet absolutely enraged Kiba. Especially since it came from a supposed teammate.

"Calm down, Kiba. He eliminated the playground the enemy had set up, now's our chance to strike."

"He probably burned a lot of your bugs as well, so why are you so calm?!"

Shino stared at his friend for some time, thinking of what to reply.

"We'll settle these things once we return to Konoha. Why? Because it seems Naruto has been taken, and now we cannot afford to lose the target we set out to eliminate as well. I believe that is his logic, and I agree with him," said Aburame calmly, still looking directly into Kiba's eyes. The latter shook his head in defeat a few seconds later, and calmed himself down.

"Fine. What's the plan?"

Kisame in the meantime evaluated the surroundings.

"Well, that was close. I guess it's true you don't give a damn about collateral damage. Willing to sacrifice even your own comrades… We two aren't too different." Kisame smirked. It seemed he was completely unphased by what had just happened. Amused even. "You seem to resemble your brother more than I thought too. Come on, do it again. Less work for me." The nukenin was now standing on one of the rocks away from the rest.

"We should hide, his next attack might kill us…," Sakura whispered to Hinata, as she looked around at all the damage caused. Hinata looked across the forest as well, her eyes widened in shock and fear as flames were consuming more and more space around them.

"Hmph," Kisame snorted, "Well, if you're not going to do anything... Doton: Dochū Senkō!" He jumped on the ground, and the earth underneath him turned into fluid, as he vanished underneath it. In almost an instant he was already near the two kunoichi who was now standing on two rocks a bit away from the camp. Right before reaching them, Kisame unleashed Samehada from the ground, crushing the rocks in his way, and reaching for the Hyūga.

_**Juken!**_

The girl suddenly jumped over Sakura, attempting to attack Kisame's tenketsu. Hoshikagi grinned widely, shifting Samehada's posture so that it would cut the Hyūga right through her stomach. When it was just inches away from the girl, Kakashi suddenly appeared right in front of her, and the blade smashed heavily into his abdomen.

But, it was too early for Kisame to celebrate a kill. With a bright blue flash, the lightning clone disappeared, Kisame's round-shaped eyes widening a bit as Hatake's chakra paralyzed him for a moment.

"Now that there's no water around, we can use lightning freely," said Kakashi, popping out of a cloud of smoke in front of Hinata and Sakura. "Sasuke!"

The Uchiha was already behind Kisame's back, his Chidori aiming at the man's head. Sadly for Konoha's ninjas, the rogue quickly got over the shock, and launched his sword at Sasuke, forcing him to dodge the attack.

"As if your fireworks can do anything to me," he growled, gripping Samehada more tightly. He wasn't laughing anymore.

Meanwhile, multiple sounds of thunder began coming from the sky, echoing across the burning forest that was rapidly heating up the sky...

Shino looked up. He felt as if another rain was coming... No, this time it was more akin to a storm. Akamaru was barking up at the clouds as well, which made Kiba notice the unusual weather too.

"You think it's one of the enemy's tricks as well?" he asked quietly.

"I'm not sure... Regardless, we need to join the attack now as well. He seems to be yielding. Come." Shino jumped ahead, with Kiba following closely.

After Sasuke's attack missed, Kisame started to feel something creeping up around him, as well as crawling up his legs. As soon as he looked down, a huge swarm rushed to surround him.

"_Hijutsu: Mushidama_." Shino moved his hands, and the bugs formed a sphere around Kisame. As soon as that was finished, they completed covered him and his weapon, and the bugs started eating away Kisame's chakra.

"_Gatsūga!_" Kiba and Akamaru quickly followed up with their usual attack, ramming into Kisame with full force.

Sasuke smirked. The diversion was just in time — it gave him the necessary momentum to prepare his ultimate technique.

"Kiba! Get away from him!" he yelled out.

Noticing that the brown-haired boy hesitated for a second, the Uchiha still sighed with relief when his dog glanced at Sasuke before changing the direction of its movement and carrying the Inuzuka in the opposite direction.

"Everyone, get as far away as you can!" the Uchiha yelled out, raising his hand.

Shino's bugs kept Kisame in place for a split second more, but that turned out to be enough. Sasuke jumped backwards, lowering his hand then. The huge dragon-shaped lightning stormed towards the ground right at the nukenin's frame.

Kisame could only manage to raise up his sword and try to cover himself from the blast when it reached him, the flash blinding everyone around…

—**=OwO=**—

Naruto's head was spinning. He was lying on something cold, something that felt like a rock, yet the surface was perfectly smooth. As the sudden concussion was starting to recede, he managed to finally stand up on his feet from the ground. He was still feeling a bit dazed. He felt as if someone forcefully pulled him, and then he fell. After a few more moments he finally remembered the beginning of the fight in the woods. Akatsuki attacked, the camp was flooded with water. They were the ones who got ambushed...

For a moment the teen wanted to launch an attack, but he immediately realized there was... nothing to attack? Where was he exactly? He looked up, and there was no sky, only a thick black sheet covering the whole the place. He was standing on one of the many stone pillars that seemed to reach far beyond the visible horizon. The ninja was confused, as he looked around to see nothing but the grey pillars being surrounded by pure blackness.

"Where... Am I dead…?" he uttered, still looking around and trying to make sense of all this.

"Where, huh? I guess you could say you're between this world and the other, Uzumaki Naruto," echoed the deep, almost mocking voice from behind.

Before the masked man could react, Naruto flew at him with his hand reached forward, the Rasengan aimed at his head.

"This sure brings memories," the man chuckled, turning around as the boy slipped through him, ending up on the nearest pillar, "Although you sure lack speed compared to him."

Naruto lost balance for a second, as he tried hard not to land between the pillars which would mean falling into the abyss. He turned around to face the masked man, staring at him with nothing but hostility. Naruto recognized him, of course.

_It's the same person that was with that aloe guy…,_ he thought, remembering the moment when they finally caught up to Sasuke only to lose him again because of this man not long ago. Back then this person had somehow teleported away…Now that Naruto thought about it, that looked quite similar to Kakashi's ability to teleport, and the fact that Sasuke had mentioned earlier that Madara possessed a similar technique… It was odd.

"So you're Madara, huh?" Uzumaki's voice was emotional as ever. It seemed the worst case scenario ended up happening, despite the Fifth's reassurance that Kakashi would be able to save him. Still, he wasn't about to go down without a fight, of course...

"It doesn't matter who I am…," the man slowly uttered, now sounding surprisingly soft, almost like a completely different person for a brief moment. "I'm nobody, and I don't want to be anybody. What really matters is what _you_ are, Naruto." He chuckled, seeing the younger's ninjas irises become red and his pupils stretch. "Relax, I'm not going to fight you now. I just wanted to talk to you, that's all. Now tell me... I'm curious. How did you make Sasuke betray me?" He settled down on the pillar's edge, putting his chin on his fist while his elbow rested on his knee. "I was sure he would want to destroy Konoha after everything he found out, but it seems like his mindset right now is the opposite to what I anticipated."

The blond ninja almost rushed at him again but stopped himself just before doing so. He obviously couldn't touch this man yet, so it would be futile to waste his chakra trying to attack him.

The young shinobi gritted his teeth. This feeling... Once again this annoying feeling of being helpless. No matter how much he progressed, how much he pushed forward, there was always something that brought him back to the same position he had desperately tried to escape since childhood…

After a few seconds, Naruto finally calmed down, crossing the arms on his chest and closing his eyes.

"Pft. What makes you think I wanna tell you anything?" He opened his eyes, looking at the motionless man sitting a few meters away from him.

"Well, it's not like you have any choice," said the man, sounding as if he was explaining something elementary to a little child. "You cannot leave this place unless I decide to let you go, and you cannot touch me either. So instead of wasting your time on being a stubborn brat, why don't we put some effort into finding a peaceful solution to this situation? After all, isn't this something your sensei taught you to always strive for?" He suppressed a vicious smirk behind the mask.

The teen eyed the masked man for a few seconds, thinking.

"Peaceful solution? Did you offer something similar to Gaara when you kidnapped him? Give me a break," he replied, and once again thought of attacking. Of course, it would be useless, but for some reason, he couldn't remain calm before this person for too long. He despised him for everything Akatsuki had done so far, but there was also another reason. One that was burning deep inside Naruto, wanting to just burst out to wreak havoc. He couldn't look at him anymore, so the boy turned around, taking a few steps away from his captor. He stopped at the edge of the pillar, looking down below into the seemingly endless pit. Naruto frowned. Coming to terms with this situation was difficult for him, as he was never the one to give up, or come to any type of compromise with evil...

The teen sighed, and dropped into a half lotus pose, still with his back turned to Madara.

"Seeing as you're not rushing to take away the Nine-Tails from me, I suppose I'm to entertain you? Whatever." He paused again, now taking more time to continue. "What the hell is this all for? People like you, who have the nerve to speak of peace while at the same time doing nothing but harm." The boy winced in pain as he remembered the day when the news broke about Jiraiya's death. "Obviously I'll never understand the likes of you, but what can possibly drive someone to do... all this?"

The man smiled behind the mask once again. This was just too pleasant… Everything the boy said, he had seen it coming before the blond would even open his mouth.

"Why, huh?" He looked up at the endless abyss above, keeping smiling almost with enthusiasm. "If you really want to know, then let me tell you a story about a foolish dead last who once wanted to become Hokage…"

—**=OwO=**—

The lightning dragon fell from above, for a split second covering Kisame's entire frame with pure natural energy. At first, it seemed like Samehada managed to absorb the attack in spite of how immense it was. The elder ninja already wanted to grin triumphantly, but then…

Then he heard a deaf crack deep inside of his weapon.

"No way…!" He gasped, and then the living blade let out a screech and fell into pieces, leaving only the hilt in his hands. "Damn you…!" Kisame met Sasuke's gaze, and then he realized that it was probably a grave mistake.

Because a moment later black flames wrapped his entire body, quickly making the ninja lose his consciousness.

The Uchiha covered his left eye, falling off the branch he'd been on and ending up standing on his knee on the ground, panting. The fatigue caused by this technique was truly awful… At least it seemed like their opponent was dead.

But then…

He paled, noticing the familiar red chakra bubbles showing up from under Kisame's skin, slowly covering his incinerated body...

"Kakashi! Sakura! Gather up the rest and get out of here! Now!" He cried out in fear, looking around himself yet seeing nothing but raging fire everywhere around.

The situation quickly turned from bad to worse. Everything that could've gone wrong — happened. As Sai and Yamato watched from afar, the latter sensed a familiar chakra.

"No way... Is that Naruto? Was the seal broken?" Yamato mumbled, looking in the direction where their camp was. "Sai, we need to return immediately!"

The teen didn't say anything. As he reigned the bird to turn around, the pair quickly flew back to others.

"What the fuck?!" Kiba kept screaming as he stayed close to Shino who seemingly managed to navigate through the Amaterasu quickly engulfing forest, consuming the red fire and turning it into charcoal-black one. He was forced to sacrifice his insects to make sure they were walking on a safe path; somehow the teen felt this fire couldn't be touched no matter what...

This was bad. _Should we meet up with everyone, or just retreat on our own at this point?_ he thought to himself, trying to find a clear path to where Kakashi was. Akamaru was walking closely to Kiba, carefully stepping side by side with his master, trying not to look around much. The previously brightly lit forest was now rapidly getting completely dark as the bizarre flames radiated no light at all.

Shino stopped, making the Inuzuka flinch.

"What?"

"We can't go further. This technique… I think it can only be sealed away, and I have no means to do anything like that to a level of these black flames," said Shino.

"You're saying we're trapped?!" exclaimed Kiba. The flames surrounding them were busy devouring the trees, rocks and bushes, slowly but steadily reaching towards the Konoha shinobi.

"There!" Yamato motioned towards Shino and Kiba. "Pick them up!"

The ink bird followed its master's command, manoeuvering through the flames to reach the ground. The two shinobi quickly hopped on the bird, and just a moment later the four of them were once again in the sky. This time they were flying towards Kakashi and the rest...

At the same time, Kakashi was scanning the area with his Sharingan. Sakura was close-by, while Hinata was trying to climb up to their position on top of a very tall pine. One of the branches from a nearby tree fell off as the black flames consumed it. It dropped down right between Hinata and them, blocking her way further. Kakashi quickly activated his Mangekyō Sharingan, trying to remove the obstacle of the Hyūga's way. It took a few moments, but he managed to teleport it into another dimension. However, the tree itself was already beginning to burn...

"Hinata, come over here quickly!" the leader of the team shouted in panic. He could see that the girl had no other way to escape. At this moment Sai and the rest were quickly descending to their position. An explosion of violent chakra resounded throughout the forest. The uncontrollable way knocked down some of the trees that were being burned down by Amaterasu. One of the once mighty oaks quickly started to fall down on Kakashi and the rest. Without any moment to prepare himself or think, he once again used his space-time ninjutsu to its maximum capacity, teleporting away everybody...

Except for Hinata. At the last moment, she slipped, falling down to the ground right into the obsidian hell. The last thing she saw before Kakashi and everyone else disappeared was the horror-filled eyes of the copy-cat ninja.

_Damn it, _Sasuke cursed in his mind, seeing as Hinata fell on the ground and the dark flames immediately ignited the fabric of her jacket. The girl screamed in pain, and at the same time, the tailed beast broke out of Kisame's dying body, a frightening roar echoing across the burning forest as its massive frame got conflagrated as well.

Three-Tails was free despite being caught by Amaterasu. And this was truly bad… If he remained alone against the monster, the Uchiha reckoned he probably could have controlled it with his Mangekyō Sharingan. However, with the poor amount of chakra he had left, he probably could only use his dojutsu just one more time…

Should he save the Hyūga? Or capture the beast…?

He gritted his teeth as the Sharingan in his right eye began to swirl, focusing on the girl who had just stopped moving. His Mangekyō activated again, and the black flames slowly disappeared off her body as well as the space around her, creating just a tiny opening for Sasuke to retrieve her seemingly unconscious body.

He jumped down, ignoring another cry of the beast as his eyes turned black — he was out of chakra now. The teen knew he would probably regret it later, and yet… He also realized he couldn't have made a different choice. It was the same as the situation when he jumped under Haku's needles to protect Naruto years ago. His body moved against his own will to protect…

Sasuke's mouth twitched as he suppressed a sorrowful smile. He hadn't known that he still had it within him… This drive to save a comrade no matter the cost.

He grabbed the motionless kunoichi and looked around, ducking just in time to dodge a swing of a giant tail that broke the trees around in thousands of burning flinders.

He needed to get the two of them out of there as soon as possible. And at the same time, he couldn't afford getting touched by his own flames — there was no way for him to extinguish them once more without dying.

Fortunately, there was a narrow route he could see thanks to the moonlight that finally broke through the clouds. The bad news was that it led directly to Madara's hideout…

Still, there was no choice, so he put Hinata on his back, locking her hands on his chest and grabbing her hips with his hands, and stormed away from the agonizing Three-Tails.

Kakashi was sitting on the smooth surface of a pillar, holding a hand over his left eye. The pain was immense, unlike anything he'd felt before. He also suspected that if he tried to stand up right now, he would immediately fall on the ground and lose his consciousness. It was the first time he had to use this technique so suddenly, and on so many people at the same time. Sakura was kneeling near him, trying to ease the pain with her medical ninjutsu. The rest of the group scattered around the pillar they were positioned on. Some were looking around, the others just trying to catch their breath.

"So this is how it looks like inside your Mangekyō Sharingan, huh?" Yamato said, looking around the place.

"It's not... I don't know where we are…," Kakashi replied, panting. It took him a lot of energy just to say anything.

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing. But, anyway... Looks like we're saved," Yamato said, walking closer to Kakashi. "Aside from..." He frowned but didn't finish the sentence.

"I'm sure she's fine. Sasuke is still out there, he won't leave her." Sakura said confidently without looking at Yamato. Everyone felt the clear lack of faith in her words, of course.

"Yeah, right. That piece of shit is the reason we had to do this in the first place. Have you seen what he did? Those black flames, and that huge lightning. He doesn't care about us at all! I wouldn't even be surprised if he was aiming at us as well. To him, it's all just collateral damage! Totally acceptable, isn't it?!" Kiba yelled in anger while sitting away from the rest of the group, comforting Akamaru who was still shaking.

"That's enough, Kiba," Yamato reprimanded him. Nobody else said a word, but it seemed the majority of the people present were thinking something along the lines of what the teen said, just afraid to say it out loud.

"Tch. The moment we return to Konoha, that bastard better gets branded as the criminal he is. If Hinata really—," he paused, biting his lip. "The Fifth is also gonna answer for going along with this plan."

"Kakashi-sensei, where are we exactly?" Shino suddenly decided to change the subject. The grey-haired ninja shrugged. He knew that the situation wasn't any good for discussing who was right and who was wrong.

"I haven't been here before personally. This is the first time. I guess this is the reaching point for the space-time technique of my left eye. We're gonna rest here, and as soon as I can use my Mangekyō again, I hope we'll get out of here. For now — do not leave this pillar. Who knows what will happen if we start to move around."

Everyone nodded in agreement. A few minutes passed, and before anyone could really relax, the group started hearing footsteps. At first, they were faint, but with each step, they became louder and louder. Soon enough a familiar silhouette appeared, coming around one of the high pillars. It was Naruto. He was jumping from one pillar to another as if it was a simple stroll for him, heading towards them.

"N-Naruto?!" Yamato exclaimed. As soon as the boy heard his voice, he looked up from staring at his feet. He stopped for a second and then continued moving a little bit faster toward the group. The teen kept his hands in his pockets, and it seemed he was holding something in both of them. His forehead protector was missing, and he looked... Disappointed? Or maybe tired. It was hard to tell, at least for Yamato who didn't know him very well.

Kakashi motioned Sakura to check on Naruto, and the girl complied. As the blond teen jumped on the pillar that the group was on, he stopped as Sakura ran up to him. She had a worried look on her face, and it took her some time to say something.

"Are you—are you okay? Where were you? We thought—," she channelled her chakra into her hand and started moving it around different parts of Naruto's body, trying to figure out if he was hurt. To her surprise, he was completely fine. Not even a bruise...

"Yeah. I'm okay." Naruto looked past her to meet Kakashi's gaze. "I'll explain everything later. I'm guessing it'll take about half an hour for you to recover and get us out of here?"

Kakashi looked surprised. That was exactly the minimum amount of time he thought he needed, but he'd never mentioned this to anyone. At first, the jōnin wanted to ask his former student multiple questions regarding whatever had happened to him; how had he ended up here; what had he done here; how could it be that he was completely healthy as if there'd been no fight or anything like that. And most importantly, how did he know how to find them in this seemingly endless place...

But the grey-haired ninja decided to not speak about these things in front of everyone, so the man just nodded and looked away. Naruto returned the nod and sat down where he stood, not saying anything else.

Having realized that they could spread out to the nearest pillars freely, everyone settled down to rest and recover, trying to make themselves comfortable if it was even possible in the current circumstances. Of course, each of them realized the gravity of trouble they ended up in. None of them knew the status of Kisame, so they couldn't tell if they had completed at least a part of their mission or not. Realistically, Hinata was most likely dead. Sasuke was missing and could be dead as well. They were trapped in a surreal dimension and it was still a question whether they could even escape it…

Realizing it all, Sakura bit her lip, suppressing upcoming tears. It wasn't a right moment to let her emotions control her, she realized it, but still…

She raised her head to glance and Naruto, and frowned even more. Something in his posture and in his expression wasn't right, she instantly realized. But the worst thing was his eyes. They were…

Empty.

* * *

**A/N: And so Sasuke is left alone with Hinata in the enemy's territory while the rest of the team is locked in Kamui! What's gonna happen next? Pls let us know what you think! And until next time! OwO**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Heeeeey guys! =^w^= What's up? Thank you all so much for all those reviews! We've prepared an extra long chapter for you in gratitude, hopefully yall love it!  
**

* * *

**Chapter 7. Open Your Eyes**

As the density of the forest ahead of them began to decrease, Sasuke slowed down, shortly switching to mere jogging. He didn't feel quite exhausted despite being almost out of chakra - physically he had barely moved last night as the whole fight had escalated pretty quickly. And although he couldn't say that he was exactly full of energy, the ninja still had enough to move around freely. If they encountered an enemy on their way, that would be a different story, though.

Fortunately, there was nobody, at least for now. Hinata was still resting unconscious on his back, so he couldn't really use her Byakugan to check where exactly he was heading to. As far as could calculate by looking at the stars, they were approaching Mountains' Graveyard, the hideout of Akatsuki he'd briefly visited before thanks to Madara. Was it wise to go directly there in his current state? Probably not quite; however, he had taken his time to think on the best way to hide from the masked man, and he realized that it was worth to take his chances with this wild card.

The reason for that was the fact that Madara was most likely pretty busy right now. With Sasuke's Amaterasu having killed Kisame (and the teen was sure the nukenin was dead), as well as released the tailed beast, it would take him some time to take care of things back at the destroyed camp. As far as Sasuke was concerned, his ancestor had no way to extinguish such an amount of black flames any quickly, if he even could do it at all.

That's why even if someone else was there in the hideout, he reckoned he could talk himself out of it… somehow. After all, Madara had brought him there before, and whoever else could be residing within should be aware of it. And if they would turn incredibly lucky and nobody would be there at all… Perhaps it would give them some opportunities he didn't even dare to think about for now.

Sasuke stopped, feeling the slight movement on his back and turning his head a bit. A subdued groan reached his ear, and Hinata's hands clasped on his chest.

"Are you awake now?" he asked neutrally, feeling as the girl froze, this time being quite tensed up. Clearly, she was indeed.

"W-What-what is g-going on...?" She raised his head, staring at the wild hair on his nape dumbly.

"Kisame is dead. You got caught in the fire and I… saved you." It was almost uncomfortable to say something like that. But at the same time, it was relieving, though he would never admit it aloud, of course.

"T-The fire…? Oh… b-but… What about the rest of-of the team?" she babbled.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "Kakashi helped them get away, I presume. The two of us didn't make it in time to get in his jutsu."

"I see…," she replied sadly. "Um… could you please let me go?"

"Just jump off." He almost shrugged. Did she really need to ask for his permission?

The girl dismounted, carefully stepping on the ground. They continued to move onward, this time by just walking. Not only because - unknown to Sasuke since he never bothered to look at her - Hinata was barely able to keep up. The girl was limping and panting heavily behind him as her leg had been horribly burned and, from what she could see with her dōjutsu, the right ankle was cracked. The Uchiha himself tried to stay as vigilant as possible, not making a single noise. He realized that somebody must have spotted them back at the camp earlier this night and reported it to Akatsuki, which caused Kisame's ambush in the end. That's why they could very well be watched right now as well.

"Agh!" Hinata yelped and tripped, falling on her knees and wincing in pain.

Sasuke stopped, finally turning around to look at her with uncovered irritation.

"You need to stay quiet. The enemy is most likely lurking around."

"I-I'm sorry…," she almost sobbed, making the teen frown. Seeing her in such a pitiful state, he wondered what was this little princess even doing among kunoichi. If she was this delicate and fragile, her place was among civilians. Did she even want to be a ninja?

_It makes sense that she's a part of the tracking squad. Don't think she's capable of doing anything else_, he thought without any malice, realizing that it probably wasn't her fault. They likely assume she's powerful just because she's a daughter of Hiashi… Ignorant fools. All of a sudden, he found himself being able to relate to this - being a child shouldering high expectations of the clan and the parents. And failing these expectations too...

He looked away, gritting his teeth at the unwanted memory that made something inside of him shrink as he refused to watch his equally unwanted teammate struggle desperately in front of him, attempting to stand up and falling back every time.

Sasuke closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. At any rate, the commanders in Konoha had never been very bright, so it wasn't surprising at all that they had assigned someone like her for a mission this dangerous.

"Get up," he ordered and came close to her, reaching out his hand.

The girl raised her head, quickly wiping her tears and looking at his palm a bit perplexedly as if she'd have never expected him to make a friendly gesture like this. Even though it could barely be called friendly, of course. She knew that he was doing it out of necessity, not because he really wanted to help. Still, she slowly raised her own shaky hand. As soon as their fingers got in touch, he grabbed her roughly and pulled the kunoichi upwards, making her gasp in pain once more.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, looking in her white irises darkly.

"M-My leg… it's…"

The ninja lowered his eyes, instantly noticing that her limb was severely damaged.

He sighed again. Leaving her here was not an option, of course - not only because of the moral side of the matter, but it would also be absolutely moronic given that he'd already decided to save her, and the current situation had been caused by that very decision.

That's why he quickly took his sword off his waist, handing it to her.

"Use it as a walking stick. Can you?"

She blinked and bit her lip unsurely, slowly taking the weapon into her hands and then attempting to lean on it, making a step. Then another. And another.

"Y-Yes, I think I can…," she finally stuttered.

"Hn." He turned away, continuing to walk in the direction of the graveyard. He was feeling a bit torn. This girl was clearly a burden to him, but a burden he had willingly accepted. He wasn't sure if he should he be angry, or if this was something he'd had coming with such attitude.

"There it is," he murmured a few minutes later as they finally went out of the forest and approached the cliff.

He looked down, scanning the familiar area with his eyes. His Sharingan was still deactivated for obvious reasons, but his eyesight was sharp enough even without it. Sasuke could see that the place looked almost completely abandoned, no signs of any presence notable.

"Can you see anybody inside?" he asked quietly.

The girl quickly looked across the area with her own dōjustu, including the complicated net of catacombs that went deep underground.

"N-No… I don't see anybody. There-there is something odd, though," she said, sounding and looking a bit lost and frightened.

"What is it?"

The girl pursed her lips and frowned.

"There are many weird-looking p-plants… I can see that-that they possess chakra. It is not strong, b-but… There are so many of them…"

"Hmpf. Plants? You must be kidding me, Hyūga." He almost rolled his eyes and came close to the edge, belatedly realizing that she most likely wouldn't be able to jump down.

"Get back on me," he ordered, turning around and looking at her impassively.

The girl blushed, taking a step away from him.

"Uh… e-excuse m-me…?"

"Get on my back. We need to go down fast; how are you planning to do this alone?"

"I-I'll manage it somehow," she replied stubbornly, gripping his sword more tightly than before.

The ninja nearly roared in frustration. He was beginning to think that the sole purpose of this girl's existence was to represent everything that could annoy him…

"Fine. Stay here and wait for Akatsuki to come and take your empty head, I don't care." He turned back abruptly, looking down and preparing to jump.

"M-My head is not empty, Uchiha-san!" she exclaimed suddenly, limping towards him and stopping right next to the Uchiha a couple of seconds later.

"...What is this?" he deadpanned, staring at the thin thread she was holding in her hands.

"A rope," she replied simply and smiled without looking at him, carefully sitting down on the edge of the cliff. "I-I can take care of myself, Uchiha-san. I am a kunoichi."

"Hn. Whatever." He turned away and jumped down, landing on the smooth ancient ground moments later.

Hinata Hyūga… She was most likely just testing his patience on purpose, she had to be. Otherwise, he just couldn't explain why she was so unnerving. Did she really believe that she was a capable kunoichi? Did she honestly think that she knew what it was even like to be a ninja? Had she ever faced an opponent stronger than her cousin…?

Sasuke shook his head. Maybe he should've left her back there to die in the fire after all...

**-=OwO=-**

At the same time in Konoha, a pair of ninjas were infiltrating the ANBU Root hidden chambers. It was night outside so the regular citizens were already asleep, however, the inside guards remained vigilant. Before making a step forward, Neji scanned the territory every time to make sure there was no one to see them, or at least if they could take care of those in their way.

Having passed the first layer of Root's headquarters, the team didn't meet that many guards for some reason. They were all in all successful in avoiding everybody. As they progressed further, they ended up in a long dark corridor. At the end of it, they could see a small glimmer of light - most likely it was the next big chamber. Neji motioned Ino to stop, as he started to scan the place ahead with his dōjutsu. At this point, they'd already got rid of the silly disguise they'd had to put on earlier. Now they were both wearing black clothing, wrapped in grey cloaks with hoods over their heads. Their faces were also covered by the standard ANBU masks, so the coverage was pretty decent - or so they thought.

The Hyūga checked their surroundings once more, and it appeared that nobody was close to them. There were a few people in the next big room, though. The place appeared to be a huge open hall with multiple paths leading to the centre of it. The rooms on each side of the corridor they were about to pass were also partially filled with Root members. Some of them were studying, some of them were training, and the rest - sleeping. It wasn't any surprising that not a single one of them was doing anything for their own entertainment.

"Be prepared to fight from now on. Although we should proceed with extreme caution, I think the next chamber might be something important. So they'll probably have some kind of hidden security," whispered Neji without turning to face his partner. The kunoichi was covering his back, looking in the opposite way. She didn't reply, just tapped the jōnin twice on his shoulder to signal him that she understood.

Neji nodded to himself, gulping nervously.

_It's good that we decided to go as a two-man team initially. Anything more than that would probably get us too much attention_, the teen thought, looking around for the hundredth time. Hopefully, he managed to get here in time as well. Our movements will depend on him covering us from the distance...

The boy tapped Ino on her hand, and the pair started to move soundlessly further into the corridor. They passed of few rooms quickly and quietly, reaching the fifth room on the right side that was currently empty. They lingered there, as Neji tried to open the lock on it. Having done so successfully, the pair entered the room and then closed the door. This was one appeared to be a study room used by Root recruits. Neji thought they might check things out there, as something useful might come up. Since they couldn't light up any torches, or turn on the lights, the whole thing was mostly done by the Hyūga who carefully looked over all the documents and books available in the room. Unfortunately, not much was found of use, as most of the material was made strictly for study purposes. However, there were a few interesting notes scribbled by the recruits themselves. One of them read:

_'Danzō-sama assigned yet another platoon to the former Uchiha compound territory. It seems he's taken a great interest in the sole survivor after Itachi's death. Must research ways to counter, and neutralize Sharingan techniques.'_

Neji scratched his chin. _Interesting. I guess Sasuke had his reasons to target Danz_ō_ after all_, thought the teen, making a quick copy of the note as the evidence. There were a few more scribbled on the pages of various books:

_'Takeshi-san disappeared tonight. He's the fifth one this month since that training program started. Seniors told us that all the people went into a deep cover for the sake of Konoha. If that's the case, why were their rooms and belongings completely destroyed?'_

Neji narrowed his eyes, looking at the book. Something really sinister was happening in the ANBU Root, something even the Hokage most likely didn't know about. He put the book away, but before that he noticed a list of names on the other page of it, stopping on it for a moment.

Success: Aburame, Hyūga, Inuzuka... Yamanaka? What the hell is this supposed to mean? He's gone through the names of prominent Konoha clans. Could it be that some of the members of these clans were also parts of ANBU Root as well? He thought about it for a second, trying to remember if anyone from the Hyūga was permitted by Hiashi-sama for this line of work, but couldn't think of anyone. If there was such a person, logically it had to be somebody from the Main House; someone as smart and experienced as Danzō would never take the risk of recruiting a Branch House member since each of them was branded with the cursed seal. However, seeing all this, Neji couldn't be sure that some Hyūga members weren't taken either by persuasion or force.

He frowned, turning to face Ino who was standing on-guard by the door. The girl motioned him to stop as soon as she detected some movement inside of the dark chamber. Neji's silhouette slowly walked up to her and stopped behind the girl. The teen then activated Byakugan, scanning the corridor once again. It appeared that some of the Root shinobi left their rooms, and headed towards the open hall on the other end of the passage. The pair waited for them to disappear, and as Neji gave her another pat on the shoulder, the kunoichi slowly and quietly opened the door.

They passed by a few rooms that were still occupied, being extra careful not to make a single sound. They dashed from one shadow to another, whether by floor or ceiling. As they almost reached the end of the corridor, the pair stopped once again. The door that led to one of the rooms was slightly opened. Neji quickly checked it out; it seemed that only one person was inside, busy studying some kind of a book. The jōnin tried to touch the door to check if it would make any sound. Fortunately for them, the hinges were oiled well enough as the teen slowly opened it a bit, just enough for him to squeeze inside. Thankfully, the only light source was a candle that was lit on the table the young Root shinobi was sitting by.

The Hyūga quietly crept up to the unsuspecting student, and hit him on the head, catching the unconscious body. Ino entered the room shortly after, closing the door behind her. Neji put the body roughly under the table and started searching the room for anything useful. Once again this was a study room with lots of books, scrolls and documents. This time Ino also was inspecting them, having taken the candle.

Neji deactivated his Byakugan to catch some rest from using it and started going through the books that the unconscious Root ninja had gathered. Most of it was just manuals and guides, as well as theory books on all kinds of techniques. What caught his eye, however, was that most of these operatives were focused on countering genjutsu-type techniques, especially Sharingan-based ones. It seemed that the Root was actively preparing for some kind of confrontation with a Sharingan user. But why?

_More of this, huh. These guys seem to be obsessed with the Uchiha clan. I think I fully understand Sasuke's concern now_, Neji thought. This time no scribbled notes were found, so the teen just put all the books back in their places. He glanced at Ino, who just nodded back stating that she was ready to go. She put out the candle, and the pair quickly left the room, closing the door behind them.

From what Neji could see with Byakugan, they were almost at the central hall. As they were leaving the final corridor, the two of them realized it was pointless to hide as the colossal place was lit well enough. It looked like a series of bridges connecting different parts of the headquarters together. On the walls, there were massive pipes stretching from below and above, seemingly endless. The hall was empty at the moment, and as the Hyūga checked the area thoroughly, he couldn't find anyone. The pair lingered for a moment, trying to see if there were any traps set for unwelcome guests but after a few minutes they decided that it was safe started moving further. They weren't running, nor were they trying to crouch; just walking forward, quickly coming up to the middle of the bridge.

Although the space around them was lit and everything could be seen quite easily, it still retained some manner of darkness. However, this didn't help Ino and Neji at all. They realized they were out there in the open and that anybody could easily notice them right now. They quickly reached the end of the bridge and switched the route, this one leading to another set of corridors and rooms. The Hyūga quickly checked which direction would be preferable, and decided to continue walking forward turning.

As they passed yet another turn, they were unable to react in time to a pair of Root shinobi appearing as if from thin air right in front of them. They both had their masks on as well; despite not attacking right away, they looked pretty menacing.

"No students are to roam this sector tonight. Which squad are you from, and who is your handler?" asked one of the of senior Root shinobi. His voice was deep, but devoid of any kind of emotion so it was hard to understand whether he was threatening or not. Ino flinched, opening her mouth behind the mask, but Neji was the first to answer:

"We're from the eastern sector, currently waiting to be assigned to a new squad as our handler was transferred to the Uchiha compound platoon," he changed his voice and tried to match the emotionless tone that he heard from this Root ninja. They didn't reply immediately, as if thinking whether to believe them or not. The other shinobi spoke next:

"You know full well you're not allowed to be here at this moment. Only when summoned by Danzō-sama."

The infiltrators took their time to respond as well. Unfortunately, it seemed they wouldn't have a chance to gather any intel about the inner behaviour patterns of Root, especially considering that they were always a subject to change at random times. However, the Hyūga still wanted to resolve this peacefully and once again was ready to speak when Ino shouted:

"Watch out!" She pushed Neji to the side and quickly used a substitute technique to avoid the incoming attack. What the jōnin couldn't recognize immediately as he didn't know the hand signs, the kunoichi knew perfectly was about to happen. One of the Root ninjas attempted to use the body switch technique; however, the girl was quicker to react. The stealth infiltration part was over; now they needed to quickly take care of these two, and find a way out. At this point, neither of them had a doubt: this was hostile territory, and the enemy wouldn't hesitate to kill them the moment they got a chance.

**-=OwO=-**

As the two of them walked into the catacombs, the atmosphere was getting more and more gloomy the deeper they went. Although torches on the walls were dimly lighting the passage ahead, Hinata still felt visibly uncomfortable, especially knowing that they were essentially in the wolf's lair right now.

"Um - Sasuke-san…"

Of course, he didn't respond, steadily striding ahead as before. She coughed, this time saying a bit louder:

"S-Sasuke-san, could you please tell me w-what exactly we're looking for?"

It took him a few seconds to open his mouth and reluctantly utter:

"Some intel on Akatsuki, whatever it may be."

"Uh… d-do you have any idea what it might look like? I-I could help - with my Byakugan…"

"It could be anything or nothing at all. Regardless, we must gather everything we can while we have this chance. I don't think we have much time, definitely not enough to scout through the entire place. If you think that you can help, just do it. Don't ask me."

She nodded, though realizing that he wouldn't see it as he was walking in front of her. The kunoichi activated her dōjutsu and quickly scanned the area surrounding them, frowning.

"It-it seems like this place is much more vast than I would imagine…"

Sasuke said nothing, so she continued after a short pause,

"It goes very deep down underground, for hundreds of yards, and I-I can see a giant statue at the very bottom."

"A statue?" The Uchiha frowned. Could it be the very statue Akatsuki used to contain the tailed beasts?

"Yes. It is surrounded by countless plants - I told you about them... N-no, now that I look at them closely… they are more like-like humans!" she yelped in fear.

"Zetsu," he murmured, remembering the odd creature from before - Madara's minion. "Are there any of them around?"

"A few," she nodded again, grabbing his sword more tightly. "It-it appears like they're patrolling the place."

"I hope I don't need to tell you what you must do if one of them approaches us. You're a kunoichi, aren't you?" he said in a slightly mocking tone which made the girl lower her eyes. Plants or not, she had yet to kill someone in her life - she still lacked that kind of experience despite being a ninja. But, at the same time, she realized he was right - there was no other choice. It was either their lives or the enemy's.

"Yes, I am," she replied firmly a few seconds later, once again looking at the unruly hair on his nape. "Sasuke-san, why are you always so angry at me?"

As expected, he didn't react to her words.

"Is there anything I could do to-to fix that? I-I don't want us to be enemies-"

"Hn. Enemies? Don't make me laugh, Hyūga," he still didn't stop nor look at her at all. "You'll never be a match for me. Besides, I won't fall low enough to fight a silly girl from a clan of cowards and scum," his voice cracked and deepened a bit, but Hinata didn't notice it as she was completely outraged by his words.

"So now you are insulting my entire clan?" she asked coldly, stopping. Surprisingly, it made the shinobi stop as well, quickly turning around to face her. The girl looked directly into his eyes, absently noticing that the pattern of his Sharingan was now different from what she'd seen before.

"Your clan is an insult to itself. It is ironic that it still exists at all. Could be one of the reasons why Konoha is rotting in its core." He looked really angry now, and Hinata knew it was unwise to provoke Sasuke any further. A part of her wanted to just shut up and pretend that it never happened; another part of her wanted to prove it to him that she was no coward.

Because she wasn't one for sure!

"Why are you saying this? Is that all because of what happened to your own clan? How is the Hyūga clan guilty for that, Sasuke-san?" she asked calmly, almost politely, not looking away from his face nor blinking at all.

The teen's burning red eyes narrowed at her with burning hatred which, she assumed, was directed at her.

"I find it unfair what Konoha did to the Uchiha clan while yours is doing perfectly fine."

Konoha did…? she blinked, not understanding what exactly he was trying to say.

"And w-what makes you think this way about us?" she asked, feeling the increasing confusion yet deciding to push a bit more, "Because we are doing 'perfectly fine', doesn't it mean that we are actually good enough? A Hyūga would always protect their family with everything we have."

He took a moment to think about it rationally despite slowly beginning to boil inside again. Why, really? Why did he feel so uncomfortable whenever Hinata initiated a conversation with him? Why did she annoy him this much despite being nothing but nice and friendly? Surely, she wasn't worse than Sakura and Ino were back in the academy years. If anything, she was their polar opposite; normally, it should've made him tolerate her at the very least, maybe even like her to an extent. No, there had to be a deeper reason behind it… And perhaps, she actually was shrewd enough to figure it out before he would.

The problem was not the girl herself; it was the clan she belonged in that made him feel so many different things at once. And also the fact that Hinata - as painful as it was for him to admit - was similar to himself in many ways. Had things taken a different turn all those years ago, maybe he would be exactly like her nowadays - powerless, aimless, meek. Exactly the way he was as a child prior to the massacre...

And now, whenever he looked at her, it made him feel so many things that it was slowly beginning to overwhelm him every time they interacted. It made Sasuke want her to just leave him alone and vanish from his sight as soon as possible, just so that it would stop. He felt jealousy - because she still had her family and he didn't. He felt indignation - because he disliked seeing her this way, so weak and fragile, clearly lacking a purpose in life. He felt torn apart - because he knew he could've been the same had the Uchiha clan not been wiped out. And he hated this idea, which was quite a contradictory conclusion since it implied that he partly wouldn't want them all to be alive, which obviously couldn't be true.

But most of all, remembering what he was told about them as a child, and also the things he'd seen in their estate a few days ago, he felt disgusted - because...

For a few seconds, he didn't say anything, making the girl want to step back under his intimidating gaze. But then his body visibly relaxed, and his eyes turned back to the regular Sharingan, the bloody fire in them eventually fading completely.

"For someone who possesses a dōjutsu that allows you to see so much, you are ridiculously blind to the reality you live in. An Uchiha would sacrifice everything, including his whole clan, just to save a single sibling if needed. Your brethren, on the other hand - you enslave your own blood and flesh, forcing them to serve your Main House under those cursed seals. The Hyūga clan is not even a family; it's just like I said, you're a bunch of slavers who always hide behind the backs of their slaves. This is the reason why I despise you and your pathetic clan. Is it clear?" He turned around, leaving her there with her white eyes widely open in shock at his stinging words.

Frankly, he wasn't even sure why he said all this. On a global scale, Sasuke didn't give a rat's ass about this girl and her clan; they were merely products of the corrupt system currently in place, nothing more. He didn't really think that their existence was any relevant when it came to Konoha's major flaws, or at least they certainly weren't its biggest problem. But, since she decided to challenge him like that, he didn't hesitate to express the way he did and had always viewed the Hyūga clan. Especially after she had dared mention his own family and compare...

_Maybe now she will finally leave me alone_, he thought irritably, continuing to walk down the empty corridor.

**-=OwO=-**

As Ino pushed Neji out of the way, dodging the attack herself as well, the kunoichi quickly found that the Root ninjas were much a lot faster than Neji and herself. One of them immediately jumped towards her, unsheathing his katana. Before the girl could take out her kunai, the enemy was violently pushed over the bridge by the Hyūga's Vacuum Palm; the teen then took a standard combat stance after attacking the Root shinobi. He then turned to face the second guard who was standing still with a formed Tiger hand seal. Neji's eyes widened behind the mask as the pair was quickly engulfed by fire. The Root ninja shifted his own mask back to cover his mouth again as soon as the technique was over. His partner quickly jumped over the other side of the bridge, seemingly unscratched.

"Did you get them?"

"I don't know yet," answered the ninja with long orange hair. He took a few steps towards where the infiltrators had stood. Some of the wooden planks of the bridge were still burning, while others were just covered in soot.

"Who do you think it was? They're definitely not ours," spoke the other ninja, looking over the bridge. His partner shrugged.

"No idea, but the guy who attacked you is obviously a Hyūga. The kunoichi though..." The man paused, remembering the voice of one of the intruders, and how she managed to notice his attack. "It seems this night will be most unpleasant. Come, we're going to find them."

Neji and Ino were quickly moving away, eventually hiding in one of the open pipes way below the bridge. Neji was scanning their surroundings to make sure no one would catch them by surprise while Ino was discarding her cape, panting.

"This is bad. Do you know what that guy tried to use on you? You've gotta be kidding me..." Her voice was more than a bit nervous. She adjusted her mask a bit, but Neji would have guessed that even behind it she was obviously distressed.

"I take it he's a Yamanaka?" asked Neji with an impassive tone. The girl looked at him.

"Yeah... Exactly. Well, hopefully, we're not gonna encounter him again. We're not here to fight, we're here to gather intel, right? We should just find the office or whatever of that guy, take anything we can and get out."

Neji frowned. He knew that it was no longer a possibility. The Root had just been alerted to their presence, and they definitely would not be getting out of there without a fight. The enemy probably had already guessed that there was a Hyūga and a Yamanaka, and knowing what Danzō was capable of, as well as his apparent obsession with kekkei genkai... The jōnin sighed as he briefly deactivated his dōjutsu.

"Follow me, I found a route to his personal chambers. We'll be able to get through with minimal resistance if we hurry up."

The pair used the pipe to trespass further. They got rid of their hooded capes on the way, now only being dressed in the usual Konoha shinobi black clothes, and their faces still covered with masks. About ten minutes later they ended up in another huge hall that was covered with pipes of all sizes. Probably one of the many rudimentary rooms that Konoha's canalization was filled with.

They jumped down and proceeded to one of the passages. It led them to a series of different rooms of all kinds. Some of them were labs, some were studying rooms, some were humble restrooms. There were places that looked like infirmaries at first glance, but at a more careful look, they seemed more like some creepy experimental places. There were also a few Root shinobi patrolling the place, but Neji and Ino quickly incapacitated them, hiding the unconscious ninja offhandedly as they realized they were very short on time.

"I know this guy is the type that reaches results by any means, but... The hell is all this?" Ino asked looking around one of those hospital-like rooms. There were strange flasks of different sizes all over the place. Some of them were filled with odd liquids, others with... Organs? Human organs…?

They then noticed huge glass vessels where a grown human would fit. There were also tables with shackles on them, some of them even had traces of gore that couldn't be wiped anymore.

"This is gross…," she drawled, wincing. Neji was busy looking over the papers that were scattered all over the tables. They were detailing different kinds of experiments on living human beings. He remembered that something similar had happened in Konoha in the past with of the three legendary Sannin, namely the infamous Orochimaru. He was known for his experiments in Konoha performed on his own comrades as well as other innocent people. Supposedly, he'd been caught back then but somehow he'd managed to get away, as they all knew...

Neji sighed as he remembered reading the classified documents about some of Konoha's past. Since he'd become a jōnin and considering his clan's status, he was able to get access to a lot of interesting, yet disturbing information about their village.

_I wonder if he works with Orochimaru as well. There were reports back in the day that he was suspected in providing that psycho with test subjects in return for data. If this is ANBU's work, we're well over our heads here…_, thought Neji as he glanced at Ino. He took a scroll out of his bag and placed some of the important documents on it. With a hand seal the documents disappeared, and the scroll closed by itself. He put it back in his bag and headed towards the exit.

"Come, we shouldn't linger here for too long."

"What do you mean? We're here for data, right? Let's take some more, search in other rooms," the kunoichi argued. Neji decided not to explain to her the full picture of their current situation. The Root headquarters have probably been completely shut closed, while all the active members put on alert to find the intruders no matter what.

"I've already got some here, as well as memorized the stuff we found upstairs. We cannot stay in one location for too long, let's keep moving."

Ino shook her head but didn't object. He was, after all, the leader on this mission.

Unbeknownst to them, at the same time, the third shinobi of their team was moving through the Root hideout by himself. He was far less delicate with the Root ninja than the two of them, not hesitating to kill those who he couldn't subdue. Since Neji and Ino had alerted the enemy to their presence - and he had already figured it out - he couldn't move freely in the shadows as much as it would be to his advantage. However, he didn't stop and continued following Neji's plan.

**-=OwO=-**

Still feeling mad enough - although now rather due to himself losing control again than because of Hinata - Sasuke eventually paused, realizing that he was at a dead end of the tunnel. There was only one door ahead to the left of him, and he didn't feel like facing the Hyūga again right now, so he walked into the room, looking around. Luckily, some of his chakra had restored by now, so he could at least use his dōjutsu to scan the place thoroughly.

To his disappointment, though, he couldn't see anything relevant. The place seemed to be long abandoned as multiple patches of spiderweb together with a thick layer of dust covered various test tubes, scrolls and other equipment.

"Damn it…," he cursed quietly, but then his eyes widened as he spotted the familiar signature - his clan's crest - on the farthest wall. He slowly came close, mesmerized by the sudden discovery and then touching it carefully with his fingertips.

Nothing happened.

"There is a lever behind that bookshelf," the sudden echo of Hinata's quiet voice made him flinch, quickly turning on his heels and glaring at her furiously.

"Don't ever sneak on me like that, Hyūga," he growled. "You might get yourself killed."

"Pardon me, Sasuke-san," she replied monotonously, not looking at him this time. He also noticed that her voice was now quiet, weak… almost defeated.

The effect of what he'd told her a few minutes ago?

"Hn." He turned to the bookshelf, instantly finding the leverage. The wall began to move, revealing the entrance to a secret hall - this one was surprisingly not entirely dark, lit by the familiar torches placed across the room.

They walked in, and almost the same second Sasuke forgot how to breathe as he realized what he was seeing. The entire wall to the right of them was made into a rack with numerous cells. And each cell contained a vial in which there was a… Sharingan eye!

"This is-" He gasped, his face twisting in rage as his body began to shake.

"The creatures… They are coming," said Hinata quietly, standing behind him with her back against his own.

"Like I care!" he growled in a deep raspy voice, stepping towards the rack.

This was despicable. He knew that Madara had helped Itachi get rid of his - no, their clan, but for him to do it so cynically... and to pedantically take all these eyes and store them here…? For what sake? Was the man completely out of his mind?

The teen looked around the room for the first time just in an attempt to distract himself for a moment. The entire place appeared to be a mixture of a laboratory and an armoury of some sort as there were multiple weapons resting on the opposite wall, but there were also countless tools, books and scrolls all over the place.

Sasuke's gaze returned to the cells with glass tubes, the eyes of the dead staring at him blankly through the odd liquid. This was the most surreal, creepy and heartbreaking thing he had experienced since Itachi's Tsukuyomi… The ninja knew that he couldn't let his emotions take over his mind no matter what. And yet… He walked by the rack, reading the names carefully inscribed on every vial. Sayu… Maya… Aoba… _Mikoto_! Even his mother's…!

He kept reading the names without really comprehending them. Every single one felt to him like a tiny poisonous needle piercing his heart… But he just couldn't stop. At least not until his gaze finally froze on the only name he needed to see.

Itachi.

The boy took the two vessels out of the wooden cell, carefully putting them in his pockets and then stepping back.

"They're almost here," he heard Hinata's whisper from the door.

"Then take care of them!" the Uchiha growled, quickly weaving hand seals.

He would not allow Madara, nor anybody else, to desecrate his clan's remnants like this. The least he could do for them all, aside from taking care of that man later, was to give them a proper funeral… Even if it would cost him the few bits of chakra he had remaining.

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! The fireball was really small, but it was enough to ignite the rack, the flames slowly beginning to consume the tubes one by one.

"Sasuke…? What are you doing here?!" asked the unfamiliar voice.

He slowly turned towards the door, looking at the white creature that was staring at him with a mixture of surprise, anxiety and anger. Sasuke then noticed Hinata - she was motionless, clearly trying to be stealthy as she was leaning on the wall just behind Zetsu and watching the scene in front of her in awe, still gripping the Uchiha's sword with her hands.

"Taking what's rightfully mine," the teen replied, putting his hands into his pockets and touching the vials as if making sure they were safe.

"You are not allowed to be here! Madara will not like this!"

"And who's going to tell him?" asked Sasuke coldly, still not moving.

"He will know in no time! The Nine-Tails has already been captured; soon he will come after you as well! He-" Before Sasuke would say or do anything, his own blade sliced through Zetsu's neck, taking his head off and making him collapse on the floor with a thud.

The room was left in a complete silence disturbed only by the cracking of the wood as more and more of the eye store was beginning to burn with each passing moment. Sasuke's eyes moved to Hinata who was panting, staring at the dead creature with intense wrath. For the first time, Sasuke could see her angry; it was easily readable in her eyes, in her expression, in her posture, and it was also... strangely amusing for him to observe.

"We need to get out of here. If what he said is true, we are in danger," said Sasuke almost casually, moving away from the wall that was already half-covered with fire.

"N-Naruto-kun… T-This thing said M-Madara - he's-!"

"Right now there is nothing you can do. If you die here, you won't help Naruto for sure," he reasoned, walking to the opposite end of the room. "Keep the sword for now. I'll borrow this…" He took the huge non-folding fan off the other wall, glancing at the three commas printed on its white surface.

The feeling he then experienced was a bit odd, but not bad at all. It was strangely familiar as if something from the long-forgotten times of his distant childhood… Somehow, he felt affiliated with this bizarre weapon, even despite knowing that he'd never seen this gunbai before.

"T-There are more of them coming!" exclaimed Hinata, stepping back from a few White Zetsu clones walking into the first section of the laboratory and then heading towards the two of them.

"Gather every scroll you can find here before we get out. I'll take care of these." He stepped forward, gripping the gunbai in his hand. There was a flash of fear in Zetsus' eyes as they saw him, and it made Sasuke grin as he began approaching them.

This will be my message for you, Madara… You are next.

**-=OwO=-**

Ino and Neji checked a few more rooms quickly on their way out, grabbing whatever they thought was important. Since they didn't have any bag to carry this amount of things with them they had to use sealing scrolls to take whatever items they needed. Unfortunately, those scrolls also had a limit, and they couldn't carry too many of them either. At this point they had one empty scroll to use remaining. The pair quickly ran to the end of the passage, stopping at the crossroads and leaning on the edge of the wall.

"This is bad. I have no idea how they're coordinating their movements, but they're surrounding us quickly with crazy efficiency," stated Neji grimly as he kept looking all over the area with his Byakugan. It seemed the Root headquarters were now fully cordoned, and their commanders were forcing everyone, even the rookies to take part in this hunt. However, of all the people he could see, Neji still hadn't managed to spot Danzō. This was the most frightening thing. Assuming that the man hadn't left this place for the night, it could only mean that he was hiding his presence on purpose somehow. Neji's chakra was already half-spent, a little more than that actually. And he knew that Ino would never be able to fight this amount of Root shinobi on her own. The good thing about this, though, was that the third member of the team - their reinforcement and, at this rate, their last hope at survival - was already nearby. All he had to do was give him a signal to follow. The pair quickly dealt with a few more Root shinobi on their way. It was becoming a bit too easy for them to do this, the thought of which bothered neither of them at the moment.

"Let's go this way. There will be a few squads on our way, but they're fairly spaced. We'll be able to deal with them if we use the element of surprise to our advantage," said Neji confidently, rushing forward. Unfortunately, he wasn't nearly as confident behind the facade; he was beginning to doubt they would even make it out alive. And if they would, there was no guarantee these Root servants wouldn't eventually figure out their identities and slay them sometime later in Konoha.

Besides, considering the list he'd found upstairs and that there was a confirmed Yamanaka among them, who was to say that there was no Hyūga amongst them too? Perhaps they were already being tracked with someone's Byakugan. And if not a Hyūga, then any sensory-type shinobi would be able to spot them in their own territory shortly in spite of all their efforts to conceal their presence.

Neji flinched. It seemed as if they were being... Guided to a certain point! Something the Hyūga realized way too late. As they barged through yet another set of doors they ended up in a huge hall with red lights all over the place. It looked like a dōjō or some kind of training ground. They stopped; the corridor behind them was quickly blocked by a huge stone wall. In front of them, they saw the two shinobi guards they had met earlier, one of them holding his hands on the ground.

"Good job. I told you your Earth Release techniques would come in handy here," spoke the tallest of them. The guy was standing still, having his arms crossed on his chest. The other one didn't reply, standing up to face the intruders as well.

"Looks like this is as far as you go. Considering you have Byakugan on your side, I find it ironic that you failed to notice the trap we have set for you. For someone who has managed to sneak in and run away from us, you seem ridiculously inexperienced."

With that phrase it finally sunk into Ino as well - Neji could see her beginning to tremble behind.

_Of course! With all that's happened, I didn't pay attention to this at all. The way they placed the weaker and smaller squads for us to pave our way through them... Damn it!_ The Hyūga cursed himself for falling for such an obvious trap. He instantly activated his Byakugan again, taking a fighting stance. Ino stepped closer to him, taking a kunai out of her bag.

"You're getting too emotional again. Careful, or you'll end up in one of those disciplinary rooms again," said the other guy in a neutral tone while taking out his katana. "Since one of them is a Hyūga, we should try and take him alive, or at least kill him with the Byakugan activated. The other one can be disposed of immediately."

"Why don't you take on the Hyūga in that case? I'll handle the girl."

With this, both of the Root ninjas disappeared. The floor moved under Ino and Neji's feet, immediately separating them into different sides of the hall. Afterwards, the taller shinobi appeared behind Ino, aiming with his tanto at her neck. The kunoichi quickly dodged the blow, jumping away as far as possible from her assailant.

Neji found himself cornered which was unusual for him. The man with the katana was relentlessly attacking him, without allowing him to make any move aside from desperately dodging. Whenever he tried to use the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm or the Palms Revolving Heaven, the enemy would just disappear underground only to jump out using his clones to attack again. It felt as if he had tremendous stamina and chakra reserves to waste, deliberately trying to wear out the Hyūga.

_I need to warn him immediately!_ Neji thought, reaching into his bag to get an explosive tag out. It was specially designed for this mission; the tag was supposed to act as a beacon for their reinforcement. As he got it out, he quickly scanned the place to find the person not too far away from their current position. The Hyūga launched the tag to the nearby wall, activating it immediately with a quick hand seal.

"Distraction? Useless," the Root ninja suddenly spoke. He blocked the wall with the tag with his Earth Release technique only to continue his attack on the Hyūga.

At the same time, Ino and the other enemy kept clashing their weapons, with the hostile ninja clearly having the upper hand every time. The girl had never been a master of close quarter combat. She'd never been in this kind of situations in the first place, as she'd always specialized in a supportive role. Having already been cut in a few places on her arms, legs and sides, she once again jumped away from the enemy to catch her breath. Her opponent, for some reason, gave her a bit of time to do so, waiting to launch his next attack.

"Shame it had to be you of all people to end up here. If you are who I think you are, that is," he spoke as he started to slowly walk towards her. A few lamps on their side of the hall were already broken, leaving a lot of spaces for their shadows to expand and dance in a creepy way. The kunoichi tried to relax and calm her breathing, but this was definitely a situation she was totally not prepared for. Not only that she couldn't fight on the same level as her opponent, but he was also apparently a Yamanaka who had most likely recognized her.

_This is so fucking messed up! What have I gotten myself into... Screw you, Sasuke!_ the girl thought as she finally realized that her hands started to tremble - she was losing control over her body. The fatigue was dawning on her, as well as the stress of the whole situation.

"Ino!" shouted Neji as he blocked yet another blow from the enemy, trying desperately to reach her while being stopped by his opponent every time. "Snap out of it, it's not over yet!"

The girl shook her head and once again took a defensive position, biting her lip to the point of tasting her own blood. At the same moment, her enemy vanished. She gasped, turning around to see his blade nearing her head.

Neji pushed away his opponent which forced the latter to use another Earth Release technique to maintain balance, but this time Neji didn't back down. Instead, he hit the ground, but the foe quickly used his jutsu to send a block of the stone floor towards Ino. Her enemy saw this and quickly jumped away, as did she. At this moment the kunoichi felt the familiar relaxing embrace on herself. She no longer felt any fatigue as she was not controlling her body at all. Her enemy also stood still as if some force had frozen him in place.

Their eyes met for a moment.

"What... What the?!" he mumbled trying to regain control. "A Nara?!"

His partner noticed this, as well as the kunoichi who was now running towards the enemy. Shikamaru released his control over her while still holding the enemy with his shadows. Ino smiled - the jōnin had managed to follow through with the plan after all. She now understood - as soon as Neji had used the beacon tag, Shikamaru quickly joined the fight making his way through the walls with his own Earth Release technique.

The other Root ninja quickly separated the floor between his partner and Ino with a crack, making her stop. The crack followed the wall up to the ceiling where Shikamaru was sitting.

"Crap, he noticed me?" he murmured, jumping away from the enemy's attack and loosening his shadow technique which gave the enemy the required momentum to attack Ino. The ginger ninja jumped over the cracked floor with his tanto aimed at the girl's chest. She couldn't jump away, only putting her kunai in front of her as her last resort of defence. At the same time, Neji attacked the other enemy, catching him by surprise this time which allowed him to successfully incapacitate him. Before the Yamanaka Root ninja could reach Ino however, he once again felt the shadows binding him. It was at this moment that he once again felt something that was supposed to have been erased. He felt fear as the cold steel of her kunai lounged into his chest. The girl staggered back with a short scream the same second.

"No... No!" she mumbled, trying to put the man on the ground and take her weapon out of him which for some reason was now stuck. Her hands were trembling terribly as she felt his blood on her skin. Shikamaru quickly jumped from the hole in the wall he was sitting in to get closer to Ino.

"No, no, no…," she kept repeating quietly to herself. The exhausted Hyūga was trying to catch his breath, silently watching the scene. He took off his mask and wiped his face with his palm._ So it has come to this…_, he thought darkly, realizing what exactly had just happened. Of course, they didn't know whether the previous Root ninja they'd encountered were also from Yamanaka or any other clan, but it was obvious this wasn't something Ino was prepared for at all.

The kunoichi finally managed to take the kunai out of the motionless body beside her, throwing it away. As the man was now on the floor, the hood shifted from his head a bit, revealing his long orange hair. Shikamaru was now standing behind Ino, quickly grasping the gravity of the situation but not saying anything yet. Not until Ino reached out her hand to take off the mask from him.

"Stop. There's no need for that. He a Root shinobi, just like many before that you've already encountered. We need to get out of here right now or else we'll die," he spoke as he put his hand on her shoulder. The girl's hand stopped inches away from the mask on the corpse, but she didn't say anything. After a few seconds of hesitation, she grabbed the mask after all, and as she removed it she immediately fell back from the body, staring at it with utter horror. She was consumed by fear and disgust, sorrow and anger, regret and shock, all at the same time.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Nobody was supposed to die here today. Especially not by her hand. Of course, this was a secret mission by Hokage herself, but... This wasn't how it usually went, was it? No. Asuma-sensei's death was an exception. Everything else was supposed to be fine.

Although she didn't know this man very well, she still recognized him instantly. It was Fū Yamanaka. One of their own that had been recruited by ANBU at an early age. But what was he doing here in Root? Why him? Why had he tried to kill her?

All these questions started to pour into her head, and the girl finally realised the most horrifying thing. She had just killed someone. No, not just someone. She had killed her own clansman…

She grabbed her head trying to stop these intrusive thoughts, but it was too late. She had never imagined she would kill anyone; after all, she'd never been the type to be in this kind of combat. Seduce somebody? Yes. Set a trap? Certainly. Interrogate? Easily. But this…

How was she to explain this to her father, to any of her clansmen? She had killed her own... And now she was desperately trying to find someone to blame. Neji? All he'd done was protecting her and doing the same thing. Shikamaru? He'd saved both of them, nothing more, nothing less. Sasuke who had caused this mission to happen in the first place? Maybe… But then again, having seen all those atrocities kept hidden by Root, it was hard to blame him… And who else? The Fifth who didn't know anything about this yet…?

Ino closed her eyes, gripping the dead body in her hands. No... No. She had done it herself.

It was _her_ fault.

* * *

**A/N Pls let us know what you think in reviews! ^w^ Until next time!**


End file.
